Seclusion (15 page)

“Hi, I’m Caleb. You are?”

“You can call me Zoey.
Happy Birthday, and thanks for the invite. Your party is pretty swanky.”

Caleb smiled and shrugged.
I grabbed his arm so I could tell what he was thinking.

“Where’s the bar, Caleb?”

He ushered me toward the
bar in the dance room. “What do you want to drink?” he asked.

“You choose.”

He turned around with two
tequila lime shots.

“Crap, Damen,”
I pleaded in my head.
“I
don’t know how to take a shot. I’ve never had done one before.”

“Poor the salt on his neck
and lick it off, and then do the shot and bite the lime.”

“I’m not doing it!”
I thought frantically.

“You can do it! Trust me, I
don’t want you licking anyone but me! But you need to.”

I grabbed the salt, and
then pulled Caleb to me. A quickly as I could, I licked the salt from his neck.
I did both shots at once and then bit the lime so I wouldn’t have to lick Caleb
twice.

“Genius!”
I heard Damen say.

Caleb looked like he was
used to girls licking salt off of him. He pulled me out to the dance floor.

“Damen, I don’t know if I
can handle two shots.”

“You won’t be able to, so
just do what I say. Everything will be fine. I’ll be close by, little one.”

At that moment, Damen
walked onto the dance floor with two girls, one on each arm. He was wearing a
white, long-sleeved, collared shirt, unbuttoned at the top, with an open vest and
slacks as dark as night. I stopped dancing and stared, open-mouthed.

“You better keep dancing,”
I heard him say.

Caleb turned around to look
at Damen. “Who is that guy? You obviously know him; he just winked at you.”

“Oh, he’s actually my
ex-boyfriend,” I said. I grabbed Caleb’s hand to drag him back to the bar and
asked for one bottle of wine and two glasses. I also grabbed a bottle of water,
hoping that might help with my soon-to-be buzz.

“Do you mind if we chat
somewhere a little less crowded?” I asked as I nodded my head toward Damen.

“Of course. My room is just
right up here,” he said as he led me up a staircase, his hand on the small of
my back.

I could see Damen dancing
with the other girls, or trying to anyway – it seemed difficult to do with two
girls rubbing up against him.

“Raegan, try to focus on
what you’re doing. Get him drunk, and then he’ll think you two hooked up. Then
we can explore the upstairs. See if you can get anything from him. Trust me, in
that dress your image is the only thing in my mind.”

Annoyed by my jealousy, I
decided to deal with Caleb. He led me into his room, sat down on his desk
chair, and pulled me onto his lap. My dress hiked up two more inches as I sat
across his lap. I tried to sit as modestly as possible as I wrapped one arm
around his neck and started stroking his hair.

“So, tell me about
yourself, Caleb.”

Fortunately, my ability
worked while I was stroking my hand through his hair. Sure enough, I got some
revealing details about his childhood.

“I’m not sure what’s going
on, but Caleb and his family are hiding something, and it has to do with
pick-ups and drop-offs and set-ups. I don’t like this job. We should have stuck
to the original plan.”

“Try to reverse your
healing power and just make him go to sleep.”
Damen said through our
link.
“You can do it.”

I began feeling braver,
which was a positive side effect of the tequila shots. I had a plan. I pulled
Caleb up out of his chair and started unbuttoning his shirt. I pushed him down
on the bed and started massaging him. Luckily, he was pretty cute and it wasn’t
a horrible chore. He had been very nice to me, even though the whole situation
was creepy. I began focusing on putting him to sleep.

“Rae, you can stop rubbing
that guy. He’s passed out.”

I looked down, and Caleb
was out.

“I’m on my way upstairs,”
he said.

Damen walked into the room
and I ran to him.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost
done with this. And I better be getting some action because so far I’ve had to
share you with two guys. You’ve never given me a rub down like that!” he
whispered.

“Shut up! I already feel
like a slut.” I tried to give him an enthusiastic kiss.

“Thanks. Okay, so you’re
going to kill me, but we need to pants that guy and leave him a present from
you,” he said as he pointed toward my dress.

“What? I think we just
crossed my boundaries.”

“Not actually. Remember our
characters?”

“Oh, I guess Zoey hasn’t
crossed her limits yet.” I hiked my dress up again and shimmied out of my
undies.
Good thing I wore cute ones tonight
. “I can’t believe I’m doing
this!”

Damen yanked Caleb’s pants
off with his ability, and I helped to keep him asleep.

“Write our hotel number on
that piece of paper and leave your present with it.”

“Are you absolutely sure
this is necessary?”

“Trust me, we want him to
call you!” he said.

I was a little disturbed by
how worldly my new boyfriend really was. I didn’t even want to know where he
came up with this stuff.

“Damen, you are way too
good at this crap,” I said, frustrated.

He just wrapped his arms
around me and kissed me, rubbing his hands up my thighs.

I pushed him lightly.
“Really?”

“Sorry, did I forget to
warn you that you are by far the hottest girl here and that you better not be
alone with me tonight or your virginity might be in danger? You definitely
aren’t a slut, I know.”

“Oh my gosh!” As I dragged
him out of the room, he kept his hand on my bum-bum, as E. would say.

Damen led me to the office,
but the door was locked. I saw Damen focus for a minute, and the door unlocked.

“Whoa, that’s pretty cool.”

We walked in, and Damen
pointed to the ugly painting on the wall. “Make a list of what’s in the safe
while I look for the shipping schedule.”

Behind a painting – how
original
,
I thought. I was writing down everything I could see with my new prediction
ability. In the safe were two fist-sized bags full of diamonds and three files
with names on them. Damen was taking pictures of the shipping schedule with his
smart phone.

“Crap! Get over here,
Raegan. Someone’s coming!”
Damen said in his mind.

He picked me up, pressed me
against the wall, and wrapped my legs around him. Then he started unzipping his
pants. I was mortified that my panties were with Caleb. This was a very
uncomfortable situation, even though Damen’s boxers were technically between us.
I could see in Damen’s mind that someone was about to walk in on us, so I got
into my part and started kissing him as feverishly as I could, though my
anxiety made my kisses very sloppy. Thankfully, Damen took charge, and I soon
forgot where I was.

I felt his warm hands
holding my bare thighs, urging me closer, and felt his mouth caressing mine,
sending heat through every limb of my body. I shivered with pleasure. My brain
was screaming, “How is this helping the situation?”

I heard a growl in my mind
and felt Damen press closer against me, blocking me from the door, all the
while leaving a trail of kisses down my neck. My head fell back against the
wall in ecstasy, and I attempted to catch my breath.

Suddenly a staff member
walked in. “What are you doing in here?” he yelled.

“Out! This room is supposed
to be locked.”

“Oh, sorry, guy. Didn’t
mean to cause you any trouble,” Damen said as he zipped his pants and handed
the guy a hundred dollar bill. I quietly followed him out of the room, and
Damen reached out to drape his jacket over my shoulders.

“Here, wrap this around you
so you aren’t so noticeable.”

My anxiety and adrenaline
had been masking my tipsiness, but as soon as we started walking out, I almost
tripped. Damen had to practically carry me out when the valet brought the car
up. He slipped another hundred to him and said, “We didn’t leave together” with
a wink.

“You didn’t leave
together,” the driver replied.

I know I’m tipsy, but
wasn’t that move in
Star
Wars
?
I thought.

Damen placed me down gently
in the front seat and kissed my forehead before buckling me in.

“Damen, you’re really a
nice guy, and amazingly hot. Smart and quick, too. You know, you could totally
be a suu…suup..spuper spy,” I giggled.

“I’m glad you think so,” he
said as we sped away.

“I think you purposely got
me drunk tonight,” I accused.

“It’s true, I did. You
would never have gone through with all that if you hadn’t had liquid courage!
Sorry about that, but slut surpasses your acting capabilities, little one.”

“Oh…but you kept me safe.”

“Everything except for your
panties, that is,” he grunted as he handed me a big cup of coffee.

“Oh, are we in a drive
through? When did we get here?”

Damen looked at me and
shrugged. “Just drink that. I don’t think you want me putting you in your pjs
tonight.”

Oh, but I do
, I thought. “Okay. Sure
thing, Mr. Damen.” I felt really silly. I had a hard time focusing, so I
concentrated on sipping my coffee.

Damen carried me up to our
room and started a bath. He dumped almost the whole bottle of bubbles in.

“What are you doing?” I was
able to focus a little more, but I couldn’t help but giggle.

“I’m planning on dumping
you in, and I don’t think you want me seeing everything, do you?” Damen winked.
He laid me down on the bed and started taking my heels off.

“I can do that,” I said as
I grabbed for the shoe.

“I know, but I don’t know
how long that will take.”

Damen stood me up and
unzipped the back of my dress. The zipper went down to my crack, and when I
slammed my hand over myself, he started laughing.

“That’s a good sign. You’re
coming back to reality now, huh?”

“Yes, but I hate to say
this. I still need help… my bra.” I kept trying to reach it, but it was an
oddly shaped clasp – silly thing.

“No problem.”

He grabbed my arms and put
them around the front of me so I was holding up my dress. I knew that if I
hadn’t been buzzing, this moment would be sending me into a melted puddle.

“Keep your arms here,” he
said. He unhooked my bra, but thankfully my dress stayed up. “Get in, and tell
me when you’re ready.”

After I relaxed in the tub,
I sent him an
“I’m in heaven”
message through our link.

Damen sat down next to the
tub. “Sorry if this hurts.” Slowly and gently, he began to take each bobby pin
out of my hair. I suddenly felt like this was a very sensual task, but he
ignored my thoughts.

“Tell me everything Caleb
said tonight.”

I laid my head back against
the tub and let him stroke my hair as he took all the pins out. I reluctantly
told him everything Caleb had said. When I was done with my story, he smiled.

“Your bubbles are almost
gone. Can you handle your hair on your own? I’ll get your pjs and a towel.”

After my bath, Damen tucked
me into bed and kissed me good night.

“Are you mad at me?” I
whined.

“No, of course not.” He
kissed me again and wrapped his arms around me.

“Then stay with me in
here.”

Damen smiled down at me and
stroked the hair away from my face. “I will, but I need to shower. Raegan…?”

“Yes…?”

“I don’t think I can handle
you with any other guy after tonight. You need to tell Chase.”

“Of course I will. I just
have to wait for the right timing.”

“Raegan, after tonight, we
are just friends, and you and Chase are a couple and that’s it. Until…you tell
him. Okay?”

He tilted my chin toward
his and gave me the sweetest, most passionate kiss.

“I feel like you’re saying
good-bye.”

“I’m sorry you think that.
‘Cause I’m not saying good-bye. I’m saying I need you to be only mine.” Damen
hugged me to him and said, “I’ll be back, little one.”

My dreams were blurred due
to the drinking, but I slept peacefully with Damen’s arms wrapped around me.
When we woke up, we didn’t say much. Instead, we just packed. We’d decided to
come home early since we had all the information we needed. Damen seemed
unusually grumpy; he didn’t even give me his usual “Good morning, sun Rae”
line. He said he was just getting used to the idea of us being friends again,
which hurt.