“No,” she replied. “Are there windows?”
“No.”
“One way in and out?”
He studied her for an extra beat, his gaze skimming her face, pausing on her mouth, then back into her eyes. “You claustrophobic?”
She hated admitting a weakness, but she couldn’t go downstairs. “Is the basement my only option?”
“I got you,” he said. “Can you find your way back to Mavis’s office?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll grab a laptop and meet you on L3, as in, the third floor.”
Her thundering heart slowed down. “That’s a better plan.”
* * *
Stryker liked knowing the hard-assed detective was human…or leaning in that direction. From what he could tell, she was claustrophobic. He could work with that. What he could not deal with was how strikingly beautiful she was. The more he stared at her, the more agitated he got. She had this amazing way of riling him up simply by existing.
Didn’t help that he’d sworn off women ever since the “incident”. Four months ago, after connecting with a member, she’d followed him home, knocked on his front door, and expected he’d invite her in. He did not. She dogged him at the club and kept showing up at his house. The stalking ended after he got a restraining order and blocked her from his club. But he’d learned his lesson and had gone cold turkey ever since.
Stryker Truman was on a sexual strike. More pissed off he could not have been.
He grabbed a laptop from his private office in the basement and returned to L3. Emerson wasn’t waiting in Mavis’s office.
“Seen the detective?” he asked his GM.
“Not in the last five minutes,” Mavis replied. “Scare her away already?”
“She must have wandered into a room.”
After eyeing his laptop, Mavis pushed out of her chair. “I take it you want to use my office.”
“For ten minutes, then I’m gonna need you to relieve Parker on L2.”
Mavis snatched her pack of crumpled cigarettes. “I love win-win situations.” With the help of her cane, she was gone in seconds.
Stryker went off in search of the sultry detective. Most of the doors on L3 were closed because they were in use. On occasion, when members were finished playing, they’d leave the door to the suite open. As he suspected, he found her in the Guilty Pleasures room, staring at the kink toys hanging on the wall.
He stood in the doorway admiring the spectacular view.
His libido could only take so much of the sultry detective. Those intense eyes that drilled into his, the way she moistened her lower lip with a slow roll of her tongue. And he’d lose his ever-loving mind if he caught another whiff of her. He’d never met anyone who smelled so fucking good. If he glanced at her rockin’ hot body, he’d start to harden.
She was hitting all his buttons, but he wasn’t gonna let his dick take the lead. Not this time. “See something you like?” he asked.
She eyed him so hard, his breath hitched.Fuck, fuck me. Do not walk in.
After pulling the nipple clamps off the wall, she said, “These have got to hurt.”
He bit back a smile. “Wouldn’t know. Never used ‘em.”
She rehung the sex toy, then ran her fingers down the feather wand.
He tracked her every movement. The way she slowly traced her fingers over the soft feathers, how she removed the whip and cracked it against her thigh. His cock twitched.
“If my career doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll become a dominatrix.”
