Siren in Bloom [Texas Sirens 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“After this, he can write a book. The Dom’s Guide to Maternal Discipline or Getting Your Freak on With Child .”
    Julian sighed. “Your sarcasm grows by the day.” He sank a hand in Finn’s hair before kissing his partner. It was a sweet kiss of deep longing. When Julian let Finn go, he stared down. “Sex on a stick? Really? Holy hotness?”
    Finn grinned. “It was all a lie, Master. I didn’t want Shelley to know the new Dom was really hideously unattractive.”
    Julian laughed, ruffling a hand through Finn’s hair. “You keep it that way, Finn. Go on, ladies. Finn and I will have a drink while we wait. I’ll walk you down, Shelley. Master Wolf would like to go over the full contract before you both sign.”
    She was going to sign a contract with a man. A contract that detailed all the things he could do to her. It was weird but exciting. She was starting a new chapter in her life.
    The Shelley chapter. She followed Dani. There was no way she started her new life in a dirty T-shirt and jeans. She would walk into it with her head held high and hope in her heart.
    And her love for Leo would always be there, but in the background. She would go on. She would find someone who needed her.
    These were her baby steps, and she would take as many as she had to until she found her peace.
     
    * * * *
     
    Senator Mitchell Cross stared at the man in front of him. He was a fit man, though Cross doubted he got his physique in anything so tame as a gym. His eyes were a cold, flinty gray, his hair cut in a precise military style. He wore simple, generic clothes, khaki pants and a T-shirt, well-worn boots. But it was very easy to picture him in fatigues. Steve Holder looked exactly like what he was. A mercenary.
    Of course, he was a mercenary with several government contracts that could blow up in all of their faces. He was far more dangerous than just his well-trained ability to kill a man.
    “You say you know this man?” Cross slid a picture across the desk toward the soldier of fortune. And fortunate he was. Holder was a millionaire because of under-the-table deals he’d made with Cross himself. He had a lot to lose, too. It was precisely why Cross had called the man in.
    Holder stared down, his expression closed off. He had a long scar running down his face beginning at the side of his left eye and running down to his chin. Cross wouldn’t like to know what had happened to whoever had given him that scar. “I served with Lieutenant Leo Meyer for about two years. He was in my SEAL unit.”
    Before Holder had stopped serving his country and started serving himself. Cross couldn’t blame the man. The Navy paid shit. So did the Senate. $174,000 a year barely paid for his wife’s cocaine habit, much less for his mistress. And his investments were drying up. Old money wasn’t what it used to be. He’d had to set up a nice little network of lobbyist money and selling favors to men like Holder in order to keep up a proper standard of living.
    Shelley McNamara Hughes could bring down his entire house of cards.
    “Were you close to him?” Units like the SEALs tended to forge strong bonds between the men who served in them.
    Holder shoved the picture back toward him. “As much as I got close to anyone. But we weren’t on the same squad. We were in the same platoon, but sure, I knew him. He was a little younger than me, but he was a solid sniper. I heard he went back to school after he left. That didn’t surprise me. Meyer was a do-gooder. He was one of those true believers. He was obnoxious, but he didn’t know I couldn’t stand him. There was an incident with a translator in Afghanistan. He left the unit after that.”
    “Really?” Maybe there was something he could use against this guy. It would be so much easier if this Meyer guy was dirty.
    “A girl he was fucking got killed. She worked as a translator in the area. It wasn’t smart to get involved with the locals, but it didn’t seem to bother Meyer.” Holder