and I’m to fetch you.”
Sam shrugged in Rosie’s direction and followed Tawny over to their host. Cooper took Sam a few paces away so they could talk without being overheard. Able to keep an eye on Sam, Rosie chatted idly with Thalia, while her husband stayed two paces behind his wife. Rosie shifted uncomfortably as Spencer kept glancing down the deep swell of her cleavage and again to the thigh peeking out from the slit up her hip. From the way lips pressed together, Thalia finally noticed her husband’s meandering gaze.
“Spencer, my prince,” she put a strange emphasis on the title that had Rosie wondering its significance, “go to the bar and fetch me a glass of sherry.”
Apparently whatever they were discussing hadn’t taken much time, as Sam returned not five very uncomfortable minutes later, just as Jocelyne swooped in, accompanied by a gentleman in his fifties.
“Rosie, I’d like for you to meet my husband, Robert.” She pronounced it with her French accent, so it sounded more like Ro-bair.
Jocelyne was in a middle of a story about Robert’s photography when Sam interrupted. “Jo, you want to go rescue my operative from Tawny’s clutches? He looks like he’s a thermometer about to burst.”
Rosie glanced over to where Kris had positioned himself by the door to the patio and saw Tawny wrapped around him like a clinging vine. Kris’s already red face flamed completely scarlet when she swiped her tongue up the side of his face while sliding her hand down his pants.
“Merde, I’ve warned her,” Jocelyne apologized before she left them to rescue Kris.
The vibrations created by the device in her harness stopped and started a dozen times through the evening, sometimes lasting only a few minutes, and once the entire length of a slow dance Sam talked her into. By the time the string quartet finished the last note, she was clinging to Sam, resting her head on his chest as she willed away a threatening orgasm.
Wrapping his arm about her waist, he led her off the dance floor. “Ready to go find a quiet corner yet, Rosebud?”
As tempting as the thought of finding relief here and now, she hated the thought that Andy and Kris would notice their disappearance, or worse, Chad, and know what they were doing. “How about we go home?”
Placing his fingers beneath her chin, he lifted her face and pressed a kiss to her nose. “Can’t. I’ve got that board meeting, remember? You stay here with Andy and Kris, this’ll only take about an hour.”
“Stay here? No,” she protested. “Where you go I go.”
Even though Sam lowered his voice, she couldn’t mistake the thread of authority running through it. “Not this time, Rosebud. This meeting is private so you’re stayin’ here.”
“Where’s the meeting?”
“Up in Coop’s penthouse.”
“Then I’m going to check it out first.”
“Rosie-”
“This is not negotiable.” She pulled away from him, ignoring the glances she drew. “You’re not going anywhere that I haven’t checked out first, and I’m not leaving you alone.”
Silence blanketed the room, so his next sentence carried to all listeners, even though he spoke quietly. “You can check out Coop’s apartment first, but you’re not staying for the meeting.”
“Sam-”
“No.”
“I’m staying with you, Sam. I’m your lead op, remember?”
“Rosie, if I have to handcuff you to Kris and order him to take you home, I will.”
“Right back at you, buddy.” She called to Andy. “Have the limo brought ’round-Mr. Watson is leaving.”
“The hell I am.” Sam wrapped his fingers around Rosie’s forearm and marched her into the hall. As soon as they left, the silence in the party room rose to a crescendo of babbling whispers.
“Now you listen here, Rosebud. These people are both my friends and my business partners. They are not a threat to me or to anyone. You take Kris and Andy and do your search for bombs or what have you, but you will keep your ass out of that apartment once the meeting starts. Do you hear me?”
“As your team leader, it’s my duty to remind you that you are putting yourself in unnecessary danger.
“One of those precious friends in there may be your stalker.”
Sam shook his head. “Give it up, Rosie. You’re seeing shadows where there are none.”
She jammed her hands on her hips. “Excuse me for being suspicious of everyone but that’s what you pay me to do. If I have to treat everyone as an enemy to protect you, I will.”
“Sounds like something they say in the 101^st Airborne,” Cooper’s voice grated behind her.
“I beg your pardon?” Rosie asked without turning around.
“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
She nodded her head once. That about summed up her training.
“What’s this about a stalker, Sam?” Cooper continued. “And why didn’t you tell me you were having security problems?”
Sam exhaled and swore under his breath as Rosie faced Cooper directly.
“As head of Sam’s security team, I need to verify the security of the room where the board meeting is being held. Plus I want to actually be in the room during the meeting.”
“I will allow your team to check out the security of my apartment, Miss Ramos, but I’m afraid only members of the Board are allowed to be present during our meeting. But allow me to apologize for my attitude when you called about the guest list the other day. If I’d known you were head of Sam’s detail, I would have gladly given you the list.” He turned to Sam. “What the hell type of threats have you been getting, Sam? Is there any link to the club?”
“Don’t worry, Coop, the threat’s to me specifically, not to anyone at the club.”
While Sam explained about the photos and phone calls, Rosie left Kris to guard Sam and went up to the penthouse with Andy to check out the security. Once she’d given Kris the all clear to escort Sam up, she waited at the front door of Cooper’s apartment as Cooper, Sam, Thalia and Jocelyne, along with five others filed past. But when she attempted to follow Sam back in, he stopped her with a glare. “I told you. You are not followin’ me into this meetin’. Now go downstairs and have another glass of champagne. I’ll be down in about an hour.”
“No, Sam. I’m staying. I’m the head of your detail, remember? You’re my responsibility.”
“Miss Ramos,” Cooper joined Sam at the door, “while I appreciate your concerns for Sam’s safety, I cannot allow you to be a part of our meeting. If you wish to position a guard outside the door, you are welcome, but that’s as much as I can allow. Club bylaws are very specific.”
With that he shut the door in her face. She snarled when she heard him throw the bolt, locking her out.
Chapter Eighteen
“Thanks, Coop. I thought I was going to have to pick her up and carry her downstairs.”
Chad cleared his throat. “In Rosie’s defense, you know she’s right about insisting one of her detail stay with you, Sam.”
“I know, but she has to trust my judgment, too.”
“Quite a little spitfire you’ve taken on there, Sammy,” another of the founding members laughed. “I bet you’re having fun bending her to your will. I can just picture the flogging that little lady’s in for tonight.”
“Yeah, can I watch?” asked one of the men seated in Cooper’s living room.
“Hell, can I help?” added another.
“Easy boys, apparently Ms. Ramos is Sam’s bodyguard, not his trainee.” Cooper grinned at the inevitable hoots at that claim, and the jokes about what part of his body she was guarding. But he lowered his voice so they couldn’t hear. “By the way, Sam, you can’t tell me you’re not doing her. If you ever have need of a third, call me first. I’d love to see her in action.”
His growled repetition that Rosie was his employee not his slave was at complete odds with the hard-on he was sporting. Damn, he could just picture her in his private suite at the club, her eyes flashing in indignation above her gag. He’d start with the flat of his hand, nice and gentle but enough to bring a pretty pink blush to those bitable
