Scent of Persuasion: Sensory Ops, Book 2 Read online

  She stepped into Breck’s office to find that he’d righted his clothes and had been joined by a stunning redhead decked out in a classy, A-line black gown. The woman hadn’t bothered with jewelry or adornments. She didn’t need them.

  “Ian’s wrapping up the finishing touches.”

  “Good.” Breck glanced at Kami before turning back to the other woman. He was in complete command of the room, and she suspected the same would be true when they went to the fundraiser. “Stay alert and keep an eye out.”

  “Now you sound like Ian. I know how to do my job.”

  “I didn’t say differently, but tonight is very important.”

  Breck straightened some papers with a stylized EW in their top left corner and slid them into a folder. She’d need a closer look to verify it, but she thought she’d seen that logo before.

  The woman stepped closer to Breck and stopped less than six inches away, clearly comfortable sharing personal space. “Try to relax and trust us.”

  “I’ll relax when this is done, Kieralyn.”

  “You don’t know how to relax.” Kieralyn closed the remaining distance and kissed Breck’s cheek. “Oddly enough, that’s one of the things I love about you.”

  Kami’s jaw tensed as irrational jealousy snapped at her. Breck had been CEO for a few weeks, but he and Kieralyn acted as if they’d known each other a long time. How long had they worked together? What kind of relationship did they really have? Why in hell did she care? He was a date for one night. Nothing more.

  “Thanks for… Well, thanks.” He hugged Kieralyn, but his eyes drifted across the room and met hers. “It means a lot.”

  “You’d do the same for me.” Kieralyn whispered something in Breck’s ear before stepping away. She grabbed an evening bag from the desk and sauntered to the door.

  That was an exchange more fitting for lovers than an employer and his employee. Why hire an escort? Unless they were lovers with an open relationship. Or with a secretive one they needed to keep hidden from whoever Ian was.

  Kieralyn turned back at the last minute with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She reached in her bag and tossed a spray bottle to Breck. “The DJ is promising a fun night. You might want to use that so your hair stays Breck-tastic.”

  Kami choked on a laugh. He shared a name with a shampoo and had fabulous hair. There was plenty of fodder for jokes.

  Breck groaned and shook his head. “One day, Kieralyn. You could let one day pass without a crack.”

  “Nope.” Kieralyn flicked her long hair over her shoulder and smiled at Kami. A gorgeous diamond winked from Kieralyn’s ring finger. “And I love your stripe.”

  Kami rubbed her hand over her the red stripe in her hair and smiled. Her envy of the woman’s closeness to Breck subsided. Kieralyn was too fun and genuine to not like instantly. “Thank you.”

  Kieralyn was laughing as she headed out the door.

  Kami smiled when she turned back to her date. She pointed at the bottle of Breck hairspray in his hand. “I hear that was a great brand. Jaclyn Smith sure seemed to like it.”

  He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, leaning slightly forward. “Don’t you start in on the shampoo cracks.”

  If he intended to be menacing, he failed.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” She went to him and smoothed his attractively mussed waves. “You do have fabulous hair.”

  Grumbling low in his throat, he picked up his tuxedo jacket and slipped it on. Power and assurance wrapped around him. He was no doubt a formidable force in everything he did. “The fundraiser is on the first floor.”

  In an old-fashioned gesture, he offered his elbow to escort her. She hadn’t seen the move outside of black-and-white movies, cotillions and the few Marine Corps balls that she’d attended. Somehow the chivalry suited him in a non-sleazy kind of way. It also made her curious to learn more about him and his background. Who had taught him how to treat women?

  As they left the office, Breck used a keypad hidden in the wall beside the doors to engage the lock. The security in the building was identical to that in Channing’s company, which wouldn’t strike her as odd if they hadn’t both had ties to Elegant Entertainment. And if Breck hadn’t put away a contract like the one she’d found by Channing’s body.

  The elevator doors slid closed. Rather than think about the flash of terror she’d had coming up, Kami looked at Breck. “What kind of shampoo do you use?”

  His lips thinned as he looked down at her.

  “It’s a fair question. There are still places that sell Breck Shampoo.”

  “I’m going to have to keep you away from Kieralyn.”

  “Pity. I think I could like her.” Having seen Breck with Kieralyn, catching a glimpse of his sense of humor, Kami felt more at ease. It would help her get through what could otherwise prove to be a challenging evening.

  “Cause trouble with her more like.”

  “Fun, not trouble.” She bumped his arm with her shoulder. “I promise to save my best for you and the bed.”

  His throat bobbed as the elevator doors opened. He leaned in to her ear as they neared a ballroom filled with people. “Please try to control yourself until then.”

  “Only if you tell me that you never dated a woman named Pert.” She smiled when he glared. “Tell me, is there any particular type of technology you’re trying to talk up tonight?”

  He opened the door and leaned in close as she moved past. “All of it, but people won’t be thinking or talking computer chips with you around.”

  His dismissive tone, drizzled with the assumption she was incapable of grasping technological intricacies, grated her nerves. She stopped mid-stride and angled her head to his. “That felt remarkably like an insult to my intelligence, which I find interesting when you factor in all of the data. I was selected for tonight specifically because of my ability to converse in subjects such as the basic circuitry of a BlueChip T6890 microprocessor. Just as your education and background deems you well-suited for the CEO position and the multitude of contracts you negotiate.”

  “I was not implying incapability on your part to carry a conversation.” He inclined his head and smiled. “When the fact is that every man in that room has already stopped mid-stream to watch you. Well, all except for the blind man. Your beauty is a distraction from business.”

  “Hmm.” She smoothed the already smooth lapel of his jacket. “You just earned yourself several points with that explanation.”

  “I look forward to collecting on them.”

  Breck watched Kami smoothly work the crowded room and escort people to the silent auction tables. Whatever she said, they each mumbled responses or shook their heads while writing their numbers and bids on the forms. Every time she flashed a brilliant smile or laughed a vibrant laugh that had them smiling in return. Whatever the night’s results turned out to be, her efforts would make Trevor proud.

  “Kami is intriguing.” Jane Ann Masters, Trevor’s mother, rested her hand on his arm as they walked along the outer edges of the room, keeping the wall to their backs.

  “Yes, she is.” He met Kami’s emerald green gaze across the room where she was currently charming Leon, Trevor’s father, into a whirl on the dance floor. Lucky bastard. It should be him feeling the sway of her knock-out body move to the music.

  “Where did you meet her?”

  “976-BABE.”

  “How very Richard Gere of you.” Jane Ann looked up with a chastising glance. “I hope you don’t tell everyone that.”

  “Tonight’s focus is literacy for children and impoverished families. It lends credibility to appear as a couple, so I needed a date.” Without expectations. “I lined one up.”

  “I’m sorry you’re only half joking. She suits you.”

  “She does, or more accurately, her lack of strings suits me.”

  Jane Ann sighed as they skirted a cluster of chatting couples. “Every woman has strings. Even those unlike your normal choices.”

  “How do you know ab
out my normal choices?” Women were passing distractions. Aside from Jane Ann. She was the only woman he’d allowed a major slot in his life until Kieralyn came along, and she was only acceptable as a sisterly partner and friend. He had no intentions of changing a smoothly working system.

  “You’re as much a son to me as Trevor, and you have been since your mom was carrying you. Your parents would not approve of you paying for dates. Your mother would want you to settle down.”

  To hear Jane Ann tell it, he and Trevor had been best friends from the womb. He often teased her that the crib would be more accurate. Jane Ann and Leon had taken him into their neighboring home, keeping him close to everything and everyone he knew, when his parents had been brutally murdered by a soldier suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Masters had been his family since.

  Trevor had become a brother and now, with him sidelined by a coma that couldn’t be the result of attempted suicide, Breck had taken over the company reins. He would discover who saw Trevor’s life as expendable. And over what.

  He had no need for secrets from the Masters, and though they might not agree with him they never judged him. “My way is safer. There are no expectations for more.”

  Jane Ann tsked him. “You do yourself a disservice.”

  “If I can’t have what you and Leon have, I don’t want a relationship. And I’m not likely to find it given the demands of my job.”

  His gaze was drawn from Kami when she looked oddly toward a man with a pockmarked face and no dance abilities who was backing a striking brunette into an older, domineering type woman. The brunette extracted herself from the man’s greedy clutches, but one word from the older woman had her pasting on a disgusted smile and stepping back into his arms. The man carried himself with the same bat-in-the-ass stiffness as Edwin, and the woman’s gaze clung desperately to Kami’s.

  “That excuse has nothing to do with your past choices, the current circumstances, or Kami.”

  “What are you getting at?” Not that he was certain he wanted to know.

  “She suits you. She complements you.”

  Kami had stayed at his side and worked the crowd like a professional—and he didn’t mean professional hooker. She’d picked up on subtleties in conversations he’d missed and used them to lure people into the spirit of generosity. She’d contributed to each conversation without taking over or becoming the center of attention. In one circumstance, she’d held her own in a technical conversation that had started his eyes glazing over.

  He shook his head and waved his free hand to indicate the crowded room. “She suits this life.” As if it’s been bred into her.

  “On the surface.” Jane Ann rested her head on his biceps. “Only on the surface.”

  “Maybe.”

  Kami had been convincing as a call girl when she’d tried to instigate sex, but there had been flashes of hesitation in her eyes, as if she had to work to convince herself to do it. In the elevator she’d seemed to relax, giving him a glimpse of a lighthearted, easy-going woman he might like to get to know. And in the sea of spit and polish refinement, it became obvious that she was too polished to be just a call girl.

  He had every intention of taking her up on her offer for sex later. But it would end there. He wasn’t going to discover what was under the surface of Kami Evans.

  “She’s captivated Leon.”

  Breck smiled lightly. “Her streak of outrageousness is right up his alley.”

  “Maybe that’s why I like her. She reminds me of how I used to be. How I wish I could still be.”

  “Go ahead, Jane Ann. Put a crazy streak of color in your hair. You could pull it off.” He laughed as Kami moved to the windows. The sun sat behind the glass and struck her blonde hair, giving her an ethereal aura of allure. Not many women could be polished and still appear carefree at the same time. Kami managed effortlessly. Jane Ann would have been the same way when she was younger.

  “I will leave the daring behavior to your young lady.”

  The domineering woman from the dance floor approached Kami with a pinched mouth. A little taller than Kami, she carried herself with an unforgiving set to her back. Black hair with touches of gray pulled into a severe twist at her nape enhanced her menace.

  Kami’s relaxed ease faltered and was replaced by a guard as rigid as the woman now talking to her.

  He stopped himself from going to her, from stepping in to banish whatever bothered her. For the moment. “She is not my young lady.”

  “Perhaps, but you aren’t as against the idea as you tell yourself.”

  He glanced around to verify that no one was listening to their conversation. Still, he dropped his head closer to Jane Ann. “I’m sure you will admit that forming a relationship while I’m undercover is not the way to breed trust.”

  “Nonsense. She’s a smart woman. She’ll understand any lie you tell her when the time comes. It’s the motivation behind the lies that matters.”

  “I’d like that to be true if I were interested in more than her services beyond tonight.” But no woman understands being lied to.

  “You fool yourself.”

  No. “She’s from Elegant Entertainment. Has it occurred to you that she may know something? That she may be involved?” He’d considered not telling Jane Ann and Leon about Trevor’s apparently frequent use of Elegant Entertainment. In the end, he’d decided they needed to know if they were going to help. “With Trevor out of the picture, we have no way of knowing who he had contact with in the private hours and days leading up to his ‘death’. It’s not a coincidence she’s from the same company he used.”

  “Maybe.” Jane Ann slipped into a weighty silence and cast her eyes around the room.

  “Jane Ann.” He pulled her into a corner and bent down.

  “I worry that he won’t wake up.” Sorrow shadowed her gaze. “That you won’t find out what happened to him. That Leon will have to take over the company. Selling it off would disrespect Trevor, but Leon’s not made for the day-to-day running of this place.”

  “He will wake up.” Breck kissed her temple. “I’m not going anywhere until he does and we have answers.”

  From the day they’d taken him in, she and Leon had never tried to replace his biological parents or asked him to call them mom and dad. They’d given a heartsick twelve-year-old boy a home and love, which was probably why he thought of them more often than not as Mom and Dad.

  If it came down to it, he’d quit his job with the FBI to allow Leon to stay in retirement. He didn’t like the idea, but it was the least he could do for family.

  The answers were close. He scanned the room. Slick, secretive façades coated most everyone in the place. He and the other members of the FBI’s Specialized Crimes Unit, who would be arriving throughout the night or who monitored surveillance from a floor away, would uncover the truth.

  “Thank you.” Jane Ann gave one resolute nod and slipped her public mask back into place. “It helps to hear the conviction in your voice. It’s the same conviction that makes it impossible for me to believe that of Kami. She is more genuine than anyone in this room. She wouldn’t hurt someone the way my Trevor was hurt.”

  “You always see the best in people, Jane Ann.”

  “And you always look for the worst.”

  “It’s my job.”

  The woman walked away from Kami. She rolled her shoulders back as if eerily chilled. Somewhere Ian Cabrera, a listener for the NSA and Kieralyn’s fiancé, was getting the conversation on a recording.

  “Keep telling yourself that.” Jane Ann chattered on unaware of his distraction. “The men watch her, but there’s no mystery in why. Men are sexual creatures.”

  A man approached Kami, shook her hand and held on a little too long as he leaned close to her ear. Whatever he said had her tensing her jaw, but she smiled and joined him on the dance floor.

  “Her dress is fabulous and she wears it to perfection. Have you pictured her naked yet?”

  “Jane Ann.” Br
eck shook his head as he kept his eyes on the man with Kami. It was an amazing dress. He’d nearly swallowed his tongue when she’d turned for him in the office and he’d seen the expanse of her naked back. Her toned muscles shifted gently beneath her skin as she moved. They would be flexing beneath the other man’s hands now as they had his earlier. When he’d touched her, he’d struggled not to take her to the apartment off the office and make them very late for the fundraiser. “I’m not as distracted as you think.”

  “So you have pictured her naked.”

  “No comment.”

  Jane Ann laughed. “The women watch her with envy. She maintains immaculate posture as if it’s been bred into her. Some of the women emulate her after she’s left them.”

  “Women are jealous and vain creatures.”

  “We are. It’s what enables us to see when someone is better than us in some way. It’s what makes us want to be better. And when a man looks at a woman, watches her intently and hungrily across the room, the way you’re looking at Kami at this moment, it makes all of us want the same kind of attention.”

  “And you think that standing straighter is going to make that happen?” He’d been watching Kami closely, but hungrily? No. Had he?

  “Of course not. Vanity and jealousy cloud reality and play on insecurities.”

  Kami tried distancing herself from the man moving her around the dance floor. He held firm. Her spine stiffened as waves of discomfort wafted around her.

  If the man noticed the tension he caused, then he was either oblivious or caused it intentionally. They could know each other. She could have escorted him. Had sex with him.

  “She does that effortlessly too.”

  Breck’s jaw throbbed. “What?”

  Jane Ann rolled her eyes. “Handles an encounter that she obviously doesn’t enjoy. Her classiness isn’t taught.”

  “Right.”

  He noticed Tyler, one of his team, coming in the door. He caught his eye and gestured toward Kami. With a terse nod, Tyler slipped over and cut in on the dance. Kami relaxed. The smile she awarded Tyler warmed. Softened.

  He should have been the one to rescue her, but Tyler had a way of caressing data out of people unnoticed.