High Voltage
Authors: Bijou Hunter
Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Suspense, #Mystery & Suspense, #Suspense
High Voltage
Bijou Hunter
Copyright © 2016 Bijou Hunter
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
*****
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the
author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For more information about this book and author
visit:
http://www.bijouhunterbooks.com
Cover Design
Illustrator: Miranda Koryluk
Photographer: Mayer George
Source: Shutterstock
Dedication
Freckles, Tigger, Pooh, and Roo, I love you more
than words can express
Mustang Sally, you deserve only the best in life
Candy Girl Miranda, meeting you was a blessing I
hope I never stop earning
Naughty Nicole, you are the energizer bunny of FB
Thanks to my badass beta readers: Saucy Sarah &
Jazzy Jaimie
Book Summary
The
moment I meet the chauvinistic Dino, I plan to either hump him or beat him into
submission.
Likely both.
My
name is Minka, and I like to be in control. I’m looking for a sensitive man
capable of allowing me to call the shots. Instead I’m lusting over a big-mouth,
sexy as hell retired mob hit man. For months, I’ve avoided the jerk and my
craving for his hot bod. Now we’re alone on a job in a town with nothing to do
except roll around naked.
Shifting
loyalties, dodging bullets, spilling blood – nothing on this assignment is as
scary as my growing desire for Dino.
~ Minka ~
From Hero to Zero in Thirty Seconds
T
he moment I meet Dino Bellomi, I know I’ll either
fuck him or beat him into submission. The newest member of the Ramsey Security
team was a big-shit hitman from New Jersey before moving to Houston. Expecting
a dumb goomba, I’m not disappointed. I admit he’s yummier than I'd imagined
when the company’s owner, Rafael, announced the hiring.
The sexy Italian killer enters the offices with the
swagger of a man with skills both in and out of the bedroom. I’m wondering
about the former when he gives me a magnetic smile and makes an announcement
about me.
“I’m going to enjoy fucking this one,” he states
for everyone in the office to hear.
I punch Dino, but he only laughs when I nail him in
the jaw.
“Feisty chicks are great lays,” he tells Troy.
My ex-boyfriend glances between Dino and me. I know
what Troy is thinking. He knows what I’m thinking, too. We’re best friends most
days, but when he laughs at Dino’s comment, I punch him, too.
Two months pass before I make a decision while on
my first assignment with the self-described “Sausage King.” No longer do I plan
to choose between fucking Dino and beating him into submission. Both will
happen soon. I just haven’t figured out in which order. Maybe even at the same
time.
Now I’m sitting on a private jet headed to Kentucky. Having brought his young wife Harlow along, Rafael views this trip as a vacation.
Dino and I are working, though.
I hate flying. Hate heights, actually. I’ve
overcome the phobia behind the fear, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still hate
bouncing around in a deathtrap thousands of miles in the air.
“I hate flying too,” Harlow says, sitting next to
me.
Even smiling at her, I doubt she hates flying as
much as I do. The blonde beauty is smiling too damn much to be scared.
“I love going home to see my family,” she adds when
I remain silent. “When was the last time you visited your family?”
“I’m about to turn thirty, and I left home at
eighteen. You do the math.”
“Rafael said your mother was a bitch.”
“He's too kind.”
Harlow and I are friends along with Troy’s woman Darla and my former co-worker Saskia. Girl time is new for me, and I really
want to make it work. The problem is chicks talk about their feelings a lot
more than guys, and I’m not a feelings type of gal.
“Don’t you have anyone you miss from home?” she
asks, so desperate for us to share something in common.
“I miss my old dog, but he’s probably long dead.”
Harlow
just had
her nineteenth birthday. Even married and living in a new city, she’s young in
a lot of ways. I don’t blame her for thinking I’m a depressing bitch. If we
reversed our roles, I’d think the same thing.
During the flight, Dino walks past us five hundred
times, and I can’t imagine he really needs to use the restroom. Either he’s
doing drugs or trying to piss me off. The guy isn’t an addict, so I can assume
Dino’s being a pest.
As soon as Harlow joins her husband in the back,
Dino takes her empty seat.
“Alone at last, partner,” he says, flashing his
perfect, white smile.
“What do you want?”
“An hour with your legs in the air.”
“Sounds awkward. No thanks.”
“The pleasure will be worth any pulled muscles,
Apples.”
His nickname for me is aggravating, but slapping
him hasn’t made him give it up. I’ve learned to accept he’s just this fucking
annoying. What he lacks in personality, he makes up for with a thick head of
nearly black hair, full lips, and rich brown eyes. Plus a lean, muscular body I
look forward to using and tossing aside.
Waving off his presence, I mutter, “I bet I can get
the same pleasure from a vibrator with less mess and pain, Tortellini.”
“I like when you call me that,” he murmurs.
I force myself to look into his smoky eyes.
“Promise your sexual deviance won’t get me killed on this mission, and I’ll consider
giving my vibrator a rest for one night.”
“Don’t you worry about getting killed,” he says,
winking at me. “I’ll have your back.”
“Yeah, but you’ll just be looking at my ass.”
“Probably, but I've got great peripheral vision.”
Refusing to smile since any encouragement only
empowers his smug nature, I sigh. “We’ll see. Now leave me alone so I can
read.”
Dino stops talking. His silence doesn’t mean he
changes seats, so I’m forced to spend the rest of the flight awkwardly ignoring
the man very obviously watching me. By the time we land, I nearly bolt out of
my seat and out of the plane door.
“She’s just really professional,” I hear Rafael
telling Harlow when I rush past them. “Minka can’t wait to get to work.”
I leave them to their teasing and hurry to where
the cars wait. A massive, blond biker stands next to one of the SUVs. He stares
at me from behind mirrored glasses.
“Are you the help?” I ask.
“I’m Vaughn. I don’t know if that’s the same
thing.”
Stepping closer, I size up the handsome biker.
“There are two cars here. I want to be in the one that doesn’t include the
Italian guy coming in this direction. If you make that happen, I will give you
money. Hell, I’ll give you my first born kid. Do you understand?”
“Are you under the impression that we don’t speak
English in Kentucky?”
“No, of course not. My bigotry is towards bikers,
not Bluegrass State residents.”
“Oh, in that case, I’ll take the money,” Vaughn
says, opening the back door of his SUV. “No offense to your first born kid, but
I’m planning to make plenty of my own.”
“Good to know, stud. Please play interference with
me and that one.”
Sliding into the backseat of the SUV, I pretend to
be busy. A part of me worries Vaughn will stick Dino in my SUV as punishment
for the biker insult. He doesn’t, though, and I hand him a hundred dollars once
we’re on the road.
“City folk,” he mutters.
Rafael rides in the second SUV with Dino while I
play girlfriend with Harlow.
“I’m not going to Cooper’s office,” she says. “You
knew that when you picked this SUV, right?”
Frowning, I hear Vaughn snickering up front. “Where
are we going?” I ask Harlow.
“I’m going to see my family. Wanna hang out?”
“Rafael and Dino are meeting with Cooper right now,
though.”
“Yep.”
“So, if I don’t show up, they could agree to
something stupid that I’d need to go along with.”
“Why would Rafael agree to something stupid?” she
asks, eyes narrowing at the thought of me shitting on her man’s reasoning
skills.
“He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
“I think Dino’s cute.”
“He’s a horndog with boundary issues.”
“Yeah, but he’s not humping my leg, so I don’t mind
him.”
Rubbing my eyes, I don’t know what to do. The idea
of hanging out with Harlow and her happy family is alluring. Girl time might
put me in a better mood.
The reason for my bad mood is playing leader at an
important meeting. Nope, I have no time for manicures and coffee. Dino is a
loose-cannon who believes every job we get is beneath his skill level. I
shudder at what he might agree to without me there to muzzle his big mouth.
~ Dino ~
She Fucking Hates Me
M
inka Appleby is my kind of broad. Tall, lean, and
fine as fuck, she even throws a mean punch. Her dark eyes turn me into a deer
stuck in the headlights. I just can’t look away. The minx inspires me to pull
out my Frank Sinatra-level seduction moves. I swear every time I open my mouth,
romantic shit flies out. I’m basically vomiting my passion at Minka and begging
for a chance.
Despite all of my efforts and her clear
heterosexuality, the chick just fucking hates me.
I won’t give up on getting the dark-eyed doll into
my bed. My new job in Houston allows me plenty of time to seduce Minka. Her
refusal to fall into my seductive web only makes me more patient. For a woman
like her, I’ll wait a long fucking time to get what I want.
In New Jersey, I didn’t want for anything. Women,
money, luxury were all at my fingertips, but I was an owned man. I never cared
that I was someone’s bitch until the day I did. Once I wanted free, I got out
fast.
Rafael is a good guy, and I liked the idea of
working with him. Houston hasn’t wowed me like Minka has, but I can survive the
occasional cowboy hats and tailgaters.
I hope to get up-close and personal with Minka
during the flight, but she sends out panicked signals.
Does she think I’ll
fuck her right in front of Rafael and his wife?
While I’m not against
public displays of affection, the romantic in me demands our first hip-pumping
action happen behind closed doors.
Minka nearly runs down the stairway to the SUVs. I
can’t run after her because Rafael and Harlow block my way. I feel like Pepe Le
Pew chasing a damn painted cat.
How did I end up playing stalker when women
normally trip over each other to get into my bed? Has the world gone fucking
mad, or did Houston kill my mojo?
Minka ends up in a different SUV with Harlow while I join Rafael in the second one. Our dark-haired driver is the strong, silent
type.
“Judd will drop us off at Cooper’s office,” Rafael
explains.
“What about Minka?”
“I’m not sure where in the hell she thinks she’s
going.”
“I think you came on too strong,” I tell Rafael,
blaming him rather than myself. “You scared her off, man.”
“Probably.”
“What kind of stuff does Minka like?”
“I don’t know,” he replies with a casual shrug.
Scowling at the big multiracial Hulk, I think he’s
messing with me. “You’ve worked with her for nearly a year.”
“Troy would know. Ask him.”
“Why would he know?”
“He’s her ex-boyfriend and current best friend. If
you want to know her secrets, he’d be the one who could tell you.”
“The blond guy?”
“Yeah, the one you’ve spoken to a hundred times,”
Rafael mutters. “That guy.”
“I didn’t realize she’d stooped that low in her
life. He’s very bland. Minka really could do better.”
“I assume she thought the same thing since they’re
not together anymore.”
“Men and women can’t be friends.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“You should fire him.”
Rafael laughs loudly as he turns his attention to
his phone and fires off a text. I don’t know who he’s mocking me to, but the
person’s response makes him laugh again.
“Have your fun,” I mumble.
“Minka is a professional. I need you to behave the
same on this job.”
“I’m always professional.”
Rafael looks at me like I’m full of shit.
Shrugging, I figure he and I have a different definition of professional. I
don’t give a crap about appearances. I only care about getting the job
completed.
We arrive at an office in the middle of the little
college town of Ellsberg. On the street, I see lots of khakis and sloppy jeans.
I feel overdressed in tight black jeans, a black buttoned up shirt, and shiny
black shoes. Rafael doesn’t fit in much better. He’s a big, dark-skinned man in
a lily-white town.
“You used to live here?” I ask when we leave the
SUV
“Just for a little while. Harlow’s from here.”
“They have any good spaghetti around here?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask her.”
Restless, I glance up and down the street. “Are we
doing this thing without Minka?”
Brooding biker Judd steps onto the curb and stares
at Rafael like I’m invisible.
“I’ll drop your shit off at your place and his shit
over at the apartments.”
Once Rafael nods, Judd returns to the SUV. I frown
at the disappearing car.
“What apartments?”
“The Reapers use a local place to put up guests.
More secure than a hotel.”
“Fancy for a shithole.”
Rafael sighs. “Don’t call it that in front of
Cooper.”
“Sensitive type, huh?” I ask, nudging him. “I’ll
keep the hankies handy.”
Grinning, Rafael shakes his head. “These people
love their little patch of nowhere.”
“I’ll be nice, boss. Treat this place like it’s Naples, and I’m in fucking awe.”
Rafael walks into the front office of Johansson
Management Inc. where an older woman waits behind a big white desk covered in
tiny angel figurines.
“You ready to go in?” she asks Rafael.
“We’re waiting for someone, Bette. This is Dino, by
the way.”
“Charmed, doll,” I say, flashing her one of my best
smiles.
Bette’s pale skin flushes beet red, and I know I’ve
made a fan. If only Minka were so easy to impress.