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Praise for Ruby …
Book 2 in Taylor Lee’s NEW Sexy Suspense Collection: Ladies of the Night.
“USA
Today best-selling author Taylor Lee soars with Ruby, the second book
in Lee’s provocative new series, Ladies of the Night. The Ladies are
covert agents in a secretive, off the grid security organization.
Highly trained fighters, they’re as gorgeous as they are dangerous to
the evil men they’re hired to bring to justice. The only thing these
formidable women are NOT is “ladies.”
Chloe Harper, Code Name:
Ruby is a diminutive, red-headed vixen. But don’t let her size fool
you. The fierce firebrand is as accomplished with a knife and Glock 19
as she is bringing men to their feet with her womanly wiles. Noah
Walker, the stunning black former Army Ranger, is no slouch when it
comes to attracting women, but even he is no match for Ruby. Both
agents are more than equipped to take on what appears to be a rogue
operation in the command structure of the national agency that hired
them. The twist and turns of this surprising mission will have your
head spinning. The only thing more riveting is the passion that flares
between the two indomitable agents.
Love Kaylea Cross's heart
pounding romantic military thrillers? Sylvia Day’s and Maya Banks red
hot sexy heroes, feisty heroines and high adrenaline action? Fern
Michael’s compelling characters? Grab Ruby and prepare to be addicted.
“Be peaceful, be
courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you,
send him to the cemetery.” Malcolm X
Chapter 1
Glancing across
the expanse of the ornate ballroom at the upscale Continental Club, Agent Chloe
Harper’s heart skipped a beat. To be
more accurate, it damn near came to a dead stop. Ditto on her breath. Chloe, aka Ruby, comforted herself with the
knowledge that sans breath and a beating heart, she had only seconds left in
this lifetime--if that. Managing a dry
snort, she reassured herself that if her last conscious sight was a glimpse of
Noah Walker, at least her life would end on a positive note.
When her heart started pumping again and she was able
to draw in a ragged breath, confirming that she would have to live through this
challenging night, Chloe chided herself that if anyone could cause a woman’s
heart to skip a beat, it was Noah Walker.
It didn’t help that the tall, warm-skinned man was a
colleague and, she admitted, a man she’d lusted after ever since she met him,
it was also likely that he was on the top ten list of “hottest men alive” of
every woman in attendance at the posh affair.
How could he not be? It was as
though the gods had thrown Idris Elba and Columbus Short into a male beauty
blender and turned it on high. The
result was, without a doubt, one of the sexiest black men Chloe had ever seen.
She guessed that few people among the crowd of makers and shakers, and maker
and shaker wannabes knew that the smiling man was neither who he seemed to be,
nor how he introduced himself.
No, the problem was that Chloe did know who Noah Walker was, in all of his many charming
iterations. Worse, he knew all of
hers. While that could be a problem,
given that they were undercover agents with two of the most secretive off the
grid agencies working in the shadows, Chloe didn’t fear Noah unmasking her—any
more than she would unmask him. No, the problem was that the last time she’d
seen him, Chloe was stark naked and having as close to an unraveled panic
attack as she’d ever endured.
Chloe felt her
cheeks flame as she searched for a hiding place. To get to the ladies room she
would have to walk by the crowd of people who were intent on getting as close
to her colleague as possible. No matter how she chose to steal by, she was
certain he would spot her. She had to
admit, that even in this crowd or perhaps especially in this crowd, she would
be hard to miss. Bright red hair and a
sinfully tight emerald green dress were sure to draw the eye of even the most
besotted fans trying to get the attention of the superstar holding court in the
center of the throng.
Slinking behind a pillar, Chloe allowed herself to
remember the last time she had seen Noah Walker. Along with their partner Grayson Webb, she
and Noah had been part of a group present when a despicable man had literally
choked a young woman to death in an autoerotic asphyxiation sex scene gone
bad. That the monster hadn’t so much as
looked back when Noah had cut the bonds holding the teenaged victim and
confirmed that she was indeed dead had added to Chloe’s angst.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen hideous sights; Chloe had survived
eight years in the jungles of Somalia and more Middle Eastern countries than
she cared to remember. A Staff Sergeant
in the Army, Chloe Harper had served as an adjunct to several squads of Army
Rangers who worked some of the most dangerous and most secretive undercover
missions the Army assigned to the elite units.
Given her conspicuous physical characteristics, Sgt. Harper’s inevitable
role was as bait to attract whichever high level target the Army wanted
eliminated.
Chloe had been so successful that when she decided
Army life was no longer for her, she’d had her choice from among the best of
the security agencies that sought retired military hotshots. To everyone’s surprise,
the esteemed Sgt. Harper turned down offers from the top tier companies and
instead joined the incipient outfit known by its provocative name, Ladies of the Night. The first hire in the renegade company, Chloe
joined its founder, Riley Davis, in what many in the industry said was a time
bomb, certain to explode. Lt. Col.
Davis, according to most of the men who’d worked with her, was as volatile and
uncontrollable as she was beautiful.
Within a year after resigning from the Army, Col. Davis had been
blackballed by virtually every prestigious security agency. According to the companies she’d worked for,
the unanimous conclusion was that the volatile Lt. Col. was unmanageable and
therefore to be avoided at all costs.
Chloe disagreed.
She’d worked two active duty missions with Col. Davis and when she'd
learned that the explosive Army hotshot was opening her own firm, Chloe had
never looked back. Against the advice of everyone she knew, she approached Col.
Davis and begged her to hire her. It
just so happened that begging wasn’t necessary.
Riley Davis confessed to her, after their five hour introductory
meeting, that Chloe’s military accolades, appearance, and sheer verve made her
a natural for the woman-owned, woman-only company that its founder was certain
would leave the rest of the agencies in the dust. As Chloe signed the contract
pledging her livelihood to the upstart company, her new boss christened
her. Col. Davis had determined that all
of her agents would receive code names.
Setting the standard with her own code name, Diamond, the irascible
leader gave the redheaded agent-to-be her code name. Chloe became Ruby.
. It was as Ruby that she’d met Noah Walker. Determined to contain her rioting emotions,
Ruby forced herself to remember that fateful night. It was the first time that she’d ever given
in to the horrors that she routinely experienced in her chosen profession. She was serving as a barmaid and stripper in the
Caligula Club, the high-end BDSM club owned by their target. Ruby was present
when the young girl had literally been strangled in front of her and the other
two agents, as well as a group of leering men.
When the hideous club owner made no secret of the fact that the girl’s
death had aroused him, Ruby had given in to her shock. Certain that she
couldn’t breathe, she’d begun shaking uncontrollably. Whisked out of the Club by her co-agents,
Noah Walker and Grayson Webb, Ruby was so shaken that she barely remembered
leaving the Club.
What she would never forget was Noah holding her in
his lap as Grayson sped through the midnight streets of the Phoenix
suburb. Pulling up in front of Ruby’s
condominium, Grayson made quick work of her elaborate security system. Inside her prized sanctuary, Noah continued
to hold her while Grayson grabbed the nearest bottle of Scotch and poured each
of them a tumbler full. While the Scotch
served to at least to help her get breathing under control, it also made her
aware of the man who was holding her on his lap. It didn’t hurt that he was
also stroking her back as he held her against his strong body, crooning
comforting words in her ear. Even now she could remember his masculine scent
combined with the fragrance of one of her favorite colognes.
What she had tried to forget the next morning, and for
the many days that followed, was how he had put her to bed. Carrying her into her bedroom, he’d laid her
on her four poster bed and began rummaging in her dresser drawers. With a
satisfied grunt, that could have been a suppressed chuckle, he returned with
one of her many Marvel Superhero nightshirts, this one Batman. Stripping off the miniscule scraps of
material that comprised her outrageous Caligula Club "uniform," he’d
slipped the colorful nightshirt over her head and pulled it down to cover her
naked body. When she woke up the next
morning after a fitful sleep, she was horrified at the memory of a gorgeous
hunk of a guy undressing her and seeing what he had put on her. Why, oh why, couldn’t she have had silky
sleep slips in her drawer instead of a bunch of juvenile cartoon
characters? Even now she groaned at the
memory.
With a soft snort, Ruby realized it was the same
feeling she had about what she was wearing now. Knowing that there wasn’t a
chance in hell that she and Noah wouldn’t run into each other sometime during
the event, she tried unsuccessfully to stretch the tight fabric of her dress an
inch or two lower to at least cover
her upper thighs. Her dismay at the
dress she had chosen was confirmed when she saw the look on Stuart Mason’s face
when he spotted her. Unfortunately, it
was a look that she had seen more than a few times in the past. Which was problematic since Stuart Mason was
her fiancé.
Stuart’s frown deepened as he approached her. His
caustic tone underscored his distaste.
Without bothering to say hello, he grasped her arm and said, “Jesus,
Chloe, why did you choose to wear that dress?
I told you specifically that this was a formal affair and that some very
important people would be here tonight.”
His distaste was so apparent you’d have thought that
she’d chosen to wear one of her many stripper outfits, that she wore routinely
in her covert line of work, to a gathering of habit-clad nuns. For a guilty
fleeting moment Chloe wondered why she had
chosen this particular dress and if perchance she’d done it on purpose to annoy
Stuart. Deciding not to dwell on that
self-aware insight, Chloe chose instead to placate him… and at the same time
poke at him. After all, Stuart could do
with a little poking. His pompousness demanded it.
“And good evening to you as well, Mr. Mason. I’m pleased to see you. And may I say you look wonderful. I like your tuxedo. It makes you look impressive. I mean, even
more impressive.”
Stuart had the decency to blush at her obvious
taunt. Still gripping her arm, he made
an obvious attempt to explain his rudeness.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Chloe. It’s just that I practically had to sell my
left nut to get invited to this shindig.
Only partners at Grafton Summers were guaranteed tickets. If I wasn’t on the Marshal case, there’s no
way I could have wrangled a ticket.” He added with another annoyed glance at
her dress, “I thought I’d explained how important this evening is.”
Chloe tossed her head and simpered. “You did. What you didn’t do, because you knew it was unwise,
was to tell me what I should or should not wear.” She added crisply, “Which is
a good thing, Stuart, since getting tickets to this important event had more to
do with my boss pulling a few strings than the particular case you’re working.”
Stuart’s flush deepened, this time with what looked
like anger. His harsh tone confirmed that she had offended him.
“That’s not the issue, Chloe. The issue is why you chose, as you so often
do, to wear an inappropriate dress.”
Ruby fought the anger constricting her chest. Not for the first time she wondered what the
hell she was doing agreeing to marry Stuart.
Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she began silently listing the
factors that had made her accept his proposal. He worked at a decent law firm and made an
acceptable salary. He wasn’t handsome by
any means but he was slender and in reasonably good shape. He was short--not sideshow short--but at five
feet eight inches he was often the shortest man in the group. Chloe didn’t
care. In fact, given her own size and the countless nicknames she’d borne all
her life, she sympathized with Stuart and continuously told him that she
preferred men she didn’t have to look up at.
Stuart didn’t share her passion for sports but then
she couldn’t think of anything that Stuart was particularly passionate about
except his reliance on manners and status. While that could be annoying, it
also underscored what Chloe liked best about him. He was predictable, almost to a fault. His job was safe, not especially exciting,
but dependable. Her life with him promised to be uneventful in the best sense
of the word. Enough money to live well,
support a couple of kids, to buy a house in the suburbs. You know: the kind of life that normal people
had. Normal was something that Chloe (and now Ruby) had longed for her entire
life. Something she had never come close
to having.
A deep voice interrupted her reverie. Without turning, she knew who it was. The fact that her legs were shaking, and that
she had to lean against the pillar to keep from falling confirmed that the
handsome man advancing on her was none other than her secret heart throb, Noah
Walker. Before she could respond he reached for her hand.
“Chloe, I didn’t expect to see you here. It’s been
much too long.”
He glanced at her dress, clearly appraising her
audacious attire. Seeing his dark eyes light with mischief, Chloe decided that
Stuart was right; the top of the dress was
too low and the bottom was too high.
Before she could choke out a response, Noah winked at her.
“Great dress, Chloe.”
When she muttered a barely audible “Thanks,” Noah
pulled her up next to him and murmured conspiratorially, “It almost beats the
Batman nightshirt.”
