Jake sent Adam a long look that let Sean know something was up. Adam shook his head, but Sean knew them way too well to let it go. “If you know something, spit it out.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Fine. But if this weren’t a mission, I would tell you to go to hell.”
Jake leaned forward. “We took a sneak peek at Grace’s eReader while we were at her place.”
“So, the lady reads. What does that have to do with anything?” Sean asked.
“The lady reads a lot about bondage,” Jake said with a chuckle. “She seems to love romance novels about BDSM, with a heavy slant toward the D/s side. I don’t know if I would peg her so much as a trained sub. She’s more like a very curious lady. I took a look at her pictures when we were at her place. She’s never wearing a collar.”
Sean felt his groin tighten. A tourist? A sweet, curious, innocent little tourist. Now that was something to think about. If Grace was really interested, he could show her a thing or two. Maybe satisfying her curiosity was a way to get close to her. But Adam and Jake didn’t need to know that. “Now tell me what you’ve learned. I know it’s going to come as a shock to you, but we’re here on a job, not to get laid.” It was a reminder he could use, too.
“Says the man planning on getting laid,” Adam shot back. “Fine. Jake and I are working in sales. It was easy enough to get in. It was also fairly easy to get access to the personnel files.”
Jake sighed. His brown eyes heated up. “Tonya in HR. She thought we were gay, too.”
They gave each other a quick fist bump before Adam continued. “We turned over the files we copied to Eve. She hasn’t come up with anything yet, but she just got them yesterday. We’ve managed to keep our ears to the ground and come up with a few choice tidbits. First, Wright is a drunk.”
Sean huffed. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Fine. He’s completely dependent on Grace. She’s involved with every meeting he has, except the ones with Evan Parnell. She never attends those. Parnell is a subcontractor who seems to have some sort of hold on Wright. Normally Wright specializes in white collar temps, but Parnell runs a small-time janitorial service. Three years ago, Wright brought him in as a way to get into the lower end of the temp services.”
“Why would he want to do that?” It didn’t make sense to Sean. “He has to make less money off janitorial services.”
Jake took over. “His higher-end business took a dive when everyone started offshoring their IT departments. He started out offering IT services here in the States. It was too expensive and companies started looking for cheap labor. He’s making a comeback. As you know, he’s started acting as a broker for Indian and South American companies, but the lower-end work saw him through some lean times. The question is, why hasn’t he cut Parnell loose? He doesn’t need him anymore. The other employees aren’t exactly sure what it is Parnell does. Gossip has it that Wright owes him some gambling debts.”
“Do we have his financials?” Eve should have run those. Sean pulled out his Blackberry and looked for the pertinent e-mail.
“Don’t bother, man.” Jake sat back, relaxed. “His personal finances have done nothing but increase in the last few years. He has to be hiding something. Get on Grace’s laptop. I bet everything you want to know is there.”
Sean thought about the careful way Grace had packed up her laptop before leaving for lunch. She had made sure she had it with her when she left. It was important to her, and he would have to get very close to get on it. He thought back to what Jake had said about his lasagna. Cooking was a pastime he’d taken a lot of ribbing for, but maybe it would come in handy with Grace. Maybe it would allow him to get very close to her. “I’ll download the hard drive the first chance I get. Now, tell me what I need to know to get into her bed as soon as possible.”
A long sigh escaped from Adam’s mouth. He exchanged a glance with his partner that let Sean know he’d thought this problem through. “If we have to give that sweet thing up, at least she’s going to someone we like. Here’s the skinny on little Grace…”
Sean leaned in. He didn’t want to miss a word.
* * * *
Grace tried to concentrate on the eReader in front of her but found it utterly impossible. Normally, she would be eating up the tale of a lovely submissive and her Master, but tonight the words swam before her eyes like a playful school of fish. They swam this way and that and inevitably ended up looking like some scrumptious bit of Sean Johansson. First, it was his sensual lips. The bottom lip was slightly larger than the upper, giving his mouth a ridiculously sexy shape. Then she couldn’t seem to get the sight of his backside out of her brain. His trousers hugged that ass in all the right places. She wondered what he looked like in tight jeans. And nothing else. She leaned back against the headboard. The eReader fell out of her hand. She didn’t need a book. Her imagination was flying.
He would leave the top snap undone, exposing the place where his hip bones would be perfectly cut. She would love to run her fingers across that valley. There would be a line of light hair that travelled from his navel down, disappearing into his jeans like an arrow pointing the way to the Promised Land. The tent in his jeans would be impressive. His cock would be hard from the minute he looked at her.
She would get on her knees in front of him, naked with the singular exception of her heels. He would insist on the shoes, of course, and as he was the Master, he would get what he wanted. Her hands would slip inside his jeans, pushing them down over his hips, his cock bouncing free. He would order her to start at his bellybutton and lick her way down until she took the head of his cock just inside her mouth. His taste would be salty sweet on her tongue, and she would lap him up. He would want her to take him deep. It would be hard because there was so much of him, but she would try. She wouldn’t complain or tell him it was impossible. She would just relax her throat and breathe through her nose. His masculine scent would be arousing in and of itself. He would taste so good. She would love the hard feel of his hand tangling in her hair as he fucked her mouth.
The shrill ring of the phone brought Grace out of her fantasy.
Grace sat up. She wasn’t sure when she’d slumped down in the bed, probably the same time her hand found its way into her now awfully wet panties. Her finger had been circling her clitoris as she’d thought about sucking Sean Johansson dry. She glared at her phone. It had been a long time since she’d even wanted to masturbate. Shouldn’t she be left to do that in peace?