Damsel in Danger
Danger Incorporated
Book One
by
Olivia Jaymes
www.OliviaJaymes.com
Damsel in Danger
Ex-DEA agent Jason Anderson is trying to rebuild his life after being held prisoner by a sadistic drug cartel. With a little help from his friends, Logan Wright and Jared Monroe, he’s starting a new business and moving forward. He only thinks about the past during the long, dark nights. It’s then that he feels most alone.
Brinley Snow has moved into her dream home. It’s everything she’s wanted and more although she facing a mountain of renovation work. Luckily it came with the bonus of a sexier than sin neighbor.
One sultry summer night, Brinley gathers up her courage and asks Jason to join her for dinner. They’re instantly attracted to one another but the evening quickly goes down hill as she ends up in the interrogation room of the local police. An unknown dead man had her address clutched in his hand. The authorities – and Jason – think she’s the key to finding a cold-blooded murderer.
With a first date like that Brinley’s not sure she’ll survive a second. Then again she’s never met anyone like Jason. He’s not the typical boy-next-door. He’s all man.
And with a little luck, he could become all hers.
DAMSEL IN DANGER
Kindle Edition Copyright © 2015 by Olivia Jaymes ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
About the Book
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books by the Author
Chapter One
‡
Brinley Snow placed the last piece of silverware on the table and stood back to study her handiwork. She was having dinner with Greg Henry tonight and she wanted everything to go smoothly. The baked ziti was bubbling in the oven and the tiramisu was chilling in the refrigerator along with a nice cabernet that needed to be around sixty-three degrees before serving.
It was a gorgeous early summer night so she’d set them up on the screened-in back patio. That patio had been one of the major reasons she’d purchased this house. It overlooked a large backyard that she’d spent days laboring over, digging up weeds and planting flowers. It wasn’t a professional job but it made the house feel more like home. The neighbor’s dog seemed to agree. The yellow lab named Huck was always there to “help” whether she was planting a begonia or having a cool drink on a hot day.
Brinley stuck her head into the kitchen so she could check the time. Greg was late – at least fifteen minutes – and that didn’t seem like him. From what she could discern from their short acquaintance he was the type that was five minutes early everywhere he went. A positive trait among several she saw as possible red flags.
Greg hadn’t yet been promoted from casual friend to boyfriend and he might never be placed in that category. Brinley had reservations about their budding relationship, not the least of which was although he was a good looking man by any standards, he left her cold as Chicago in January. He simply didn’t get her motor running.
Of course that didn’t mean it was all hopeless. This was only their second date and they’d barely even touched. He’d been a gentleman and although she appreciated his impeccable manners sometimes a woman just wanted to be pressed up against a wall and kissed.
Hard.
Clearly Greg wasn’t the type to do that. When they’d first met he’d said something about a bad back so presumably he wouldn’t be slinging her anywhere, least of all against a wall or on the kitchen table.
The back door of her neighbor’s house swung open, the screen door squeaking and Huck prancing in the grass. Brinley and Huck had formed a close relationship over the last four weeks, but it was the man dressed in cutoff shorts and a black t-shirt who had every bit of her attention.
Mr. Gorgeous. Now here was a man that could press a woman against the wall or lift her onto a table and fuck her brains out.
To be truthful, Mr. Gorgeous wasn’t his real name. He was Jason Anderson and according to a few of the other neighbors he had lived here about three years. Fran, the neighbor on the other side, said he traveled quite a bit and the addition of Huck to the household was recent.
Jason was friendly enough, waving whenever they were both outside and even stopping to chat about innocuous subjects like the weather or if the mail was late. She’d wanted to invite him over for a glass of wine but was too chicken. He was way out of her league.
Wide shoulders and flat abs. Short dark hair. Piercing green eyes. And that scar. Holy moly, that scar on his cheek made him look a little dangerous. Kind of dashing. And sexy as hell.
He was the biggest reason she’d accepted that date invitation from Greg when they kept bumping into each other at the corner gourmet coffee shop. If she was drooling like this over a man she didn’t know all that well, it was obvious she’d been without one too long.
Her neighbor threw a tennis ball and the dog jumped up into the air to catch it before loping back to its owner, ball in mouth. Huck was gazing up at Jason Anderson with an expression that could only be described as adoring. She couldn’t help but wonder if her neighbor had a woman or two tucked away somewhere that looked at him in the same way. She’d never seen a female visiting but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one. She was probably beautiful and successful, always well dressed and never caught without makeup.
“You are an idiot,” she muttered under her breath as her phone vibrated on the table. Grabbing her cell, she pressed it to her ear, determined to put Jason Anderson out of her mind.
“Hello?”
“Brinley? It’s Greg. I’m afraid I have bad news.”
“I can barely hear you. You’re going to have to speak up a little.”
Greg said something she couldn’t quite make out and then the background noise switched off.
“Is that better? I was listening to the radio in my car.”
“Much better. What’s the bad news?” she asked, although she had a pretty decent idea what it was if he was still in his car when he was supposed to be here. She shouldn’t feel so relieved either but she did.
“I can’t make it. There’s an emergency at work that I need to deal with. I hope you understand.”