Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down Read online

  She shook her head at his enthusiasm. At times he was simply evil.

  But she was glad this was one of those times.

  Once they reached Germany, they spent night and day together. Rhea was stunned at how comfortable she became around Ace while she was completely naked. It was liberating to have no sense of being body conscious around him.

  How could she when he seemed to prefer her that way?

  “I’m supposed to be training with you tied up,” she said as Ace secured her hands, which were tied together to her headboard.

  “Turnabout is fair play.”

  She supposed it was.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as he took one ankle carefully in his hand.

  He kissed the sole of her foot.

  Rhea moaned as he moved to lick her toes and to torment them one by one until she was squirming.

  “I’m having my way with you, princess.” He tied her foot to the bedpost.

  After he had the other leg secured, Ace stood back. He’d never thought about tying someone up as being particularly sexy, but he had to admit the sight of her tied and waiting for him turned him on a lot more than he would ever have guessed.

  He slid his briefs off, then pouted slightly. “I should have tied you down on your back.”

  “Too late.”

  “Not necessarily.” Grinning at her, Ace slid himself slowly up under her.

  Rhea hissed at the feeling of him there. She was completely open and exposed to his every desire.

  She dipped her head down to kiss him while he slid his hands down her back to gently cup her butt and press her hips to his. She could feel him growing hard against her stomach.

  “Hmmm,” he breathed, rubbing himself against her. “What have I found?”

  Rhea sucked her breath in sharply as his rough fingers gently prodded her clit.

  “You do know, I’m getting entirely too attached to you, Ace?”

  “Yeah,” he said as he slid one long, lean finger inside her. “And I know that I should get up, get dressed, and go to my room.”

  But he didn’t move to get up and that thrilled her most of all.

  “Why aren’t you leaving?” she asked.

  “Honestly?”

  She nodded.

  “I’m desperate for you, Rhea.” He pulled his hand away from her, then brushed the hair back from her face so that he could look at her. “I’ve been desperate to taste your body since the day you first came into the office, stumbled, and fell, flashing me those little pink panties you had on under your skirt.”

  Her face flushed with heat. “You saw that?”

  “Oh, yeah, and I’ve dreamed of nothing but peeling those pink panties off of you ever since.”

  “And now that you have?”

  “I want the right to keep peeling them off you anytime you make me hot.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “That is without a doubt the most unromantic thing I have ever heard, and if I wasn’t tied down, I’d leave.”

  He laughed low in his throat as his hand returned to stroke her between her legs. “Then it’s a good thing I tied you down first, huh?”

  It was hard to think straight while he touched her like this. While his fingers stroked and circled her.

  “Tell me what you want, Rhea.”

  “I want you inside me.”

  Ace gave her a fierce kiss, then moved his lips slowly down her body to her breasts, where he took his time teasing her. Then lower and lower while her body burned for him. He licked his way to her thigh, then nipped her hip as he slid completely out from under her.

  Rhea tried to look over her shoulder but couldn’t see anything.

  She felt the bed dip with his weight as he moved to lean over her.

  He brushed the hair back from her neck before he nibbled at her earlobe. She shook all over as his tongue teased her ear. His breath scorched her.

  He slid his hand around her hip, to sink it deep in her fold before he entered her.

  Rhea gasped as pleasure assaulted her.

  Ace was blinded by the sensation of her warm, wet heat. He could lose himself inside her forever.

  But today was their last day to play. Tomorrow Bender would show himself.

  One of them could die. It wasn’t something agents gave much thought to, but as he rode her slowly, that fear finally found him.

  What if something went wrong?

  “Ace? Are you okay?”

  He placed a kiss to her cheek. “I’m fine, baby.”

  Rhea moaned as his fingers stroked her while he thrust deep inside her. Still, she could tell something was different about him in spite of what he said. There was a hesitancy to his touch. A reservation.

  But she didn’t have long to contemplate that before her orgasm claimed her.

  Ace held her tight, his fingers working their magic until the very last tremor had been coaxed out of her.

  A few heartbeats later she felt him tense as he too joined her in bliss.

  Rhea lay there with his weight pleasantly crushing her while he untied her hands.

  “I’m going to miss our ‘training’ sessions.”

  “I’ll bet you will,” she said with a laugh.

  He moved to the side of her so that she could roll over and snuggle close.

  Tenderly, he brushed the hair back from her face.

  Rhea sighed. “I wish we could go back and do the last few days over.”

  “Yeah, me too. But you know, this doesn’t have to end…does it?”

  Rhea swallowed at his question. “I don’t know, Ace. A relationship is hard enough. But between two agents…”

  “Dagmar and Dieter make it work.”

  That was true. The two of them were married, and to Rhea’s knowledge they’d never had so much as a hiccup in their relationship.

  He took her hand in his and moved it to his lips so that he could nibble her palm. “Can we at least try?”

  She smiled at him. What woman could say no to that look? “Okay.”

  Ace returned her smile before he kissed her on the brow. But in the back of his mind, he couldn’t shake the sensation that something was going to go seriously wrong tomorrow.

  Chapter Five

  Ace was in position, waiting with Dieter while Rhea dressed herself for the arrival of Bender. It had taken some doing to get the PussyCat Club to “hire” Rhea, but after a nice long talk with the German authorities, the owner decided it would be in her best interest to let Rhea do her job.

  Now Rhea was in a locker room that the dominatrixes used to garb themselves in their work attire while Ace and Dieter were outside in the blood red hallway that led to all the “service” rooms.

  “Are you all right, Krux?” Dieter asked as they stacked towels onto a cart so that to any passersby, they would look like two regular workers restocking the towels for the clients.

  Dieter was a tall, extremely muscular, blond German native. He’d been recruited by Joe a little over a year ago and since then had been quite an asset to their team. Having been born and bred in Europe, Dieter knew every back hole and dive in six countries. Better still, he had questionable associates who often leaked vital information to them.

  Ace could feel a tic working in his jaw. “No. I don’t like sending her in there alone with a psycho.”

  “Relax. But I know what you mean. Dagmar never listens to me either. She is”—he paused as if searching for the foreign English word—“stubborn. Many times she goes when she should stay. But Rhea is more cautious. She knows what to do. I don’t think we have anything to worry over with that one.”

  Yeah, but Ace really hated the thought of her tying Bender down. The beating part he could live with. It was the “other” unknown variables that had his stomach knotted.

  “Excuse me?” an extremely well-built, leather-clad mistress said in German as she came into the hallway from a room three doors down. “What is it you two do? You need to be working at getting these towels to the room and not dawdling
with idle chatter.”

  “Ja, we’re working,” Dieter responded, knowing that Ace’s German was flawless, but accented enough to give him away as a foreigner.

  “You,” the mistress said, indicating Dieter. “I need you standing by room five after Herr Bender leaves.”

  Ace’s heart stopped beating.

  “Why?” Dieter asked.

  She sighed heavily. “He always leaves his woman a mess. We will need to get Bettie to our doctor as soon as he goes, and you look more than strong enough to carry her.”

  “Pardon?” Ace asked as his sight turned dim.

  “Ja, he is not a good man, but he pays us well.”

  “But I thought he was the one who liked to be tied up,” Dieter said.

  She laughed as if the very idea amused her. “Who told you such? Nein, he would never allow anyone else to tie him up.” She cracked the small riding crop in her hand at them. “Schnell, schnell. He will be here momentarily.”

  Neither of them moved until after she’d entered a room on the left.

  “We were fed bullshit,” Ace said from between clenched teeth.

  He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and buzzed Retter, who was in the building across the street with the recording equipment. “We have a problem, Retter. My informer lied. Bender doesn’t get beaten. He does the beating.”

  “What?”

  Ace clenched the phone so hard his hand was shaking. “You heard me. What do we do?”

  He could hear Joe in the background telling Retter what to do after Retter had filled him in on what was happening. “It’s too late to call this off without blowing our covers. Rhea will just have to go through it.”

  Ace saw red. “Hell, no.”

  He hung up while Retter started to yell at him.

  “What did he say?” Dieter asked.

  “Something I didn’t want to hear. I’m pulling Rhea out.”

  “If Retter said—”

  Ace cut Dieter’s words off with a staggering punch that rendered him unconscious. Ace grabbed the huge bear of a man and shoved him into the towel closet, covered him with towels, then shut and locked the door.

  God help him, Dieter would beat the shit out him later.

  But that was later.

  Right now he had a damsel who was about to get seriously distressed.

  Rhea was checking out her stockings in the mirror when the door to her dressing room opened. She frowned as she saw Ace.

  By the look on his face, she could tell something was wrong. “What’s up?”

  “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “Why?”

  “Bender is a psycho and he is going to beat you. Not the other way around.”

  Rhea went pale at this disclosure. “What did Retter say?”

  “I don’t give a shit what he said. Retter is an idiot and I’m not going to send you in there so that fat bastard can mangle you. This is my case and I’m—”

  “This is my job, Ace. It’s what I do.”

  Ace cursed in frustration. “Will no one listen to reason?”

  Narrowing her gaze at him, she put her hands on her hips to let him know that she thought he was the one being unreasonable. “Ace, we have to nail this bastard. If he confesses—”

  “And if the bitch lied about who gets beaten, doesn’t it stand to reason that she lied about the confession bit as well?”

  “Maybe she didn’t. We have to get this guy off the street, and if this is the way, then this is the way.”

  That didn’t make a bit of sense to him. “Fine, I’ll kill him and we—”

  “We’re not assassins, Ace. We work by law and order.”

  His fury roiled through him at that. “You don’t know Tee very well, do you? I hate to be the messenger, Rhea, but Tee is a cold-blooded killer.”

  “Oh, please.”

  Rhea started for the door.

  Unable to stand by and watch her be hurt, Ace ran for her. He grabbed her before she could stop him.

  “What are you doing?”

  He pulled the handcuffs out of his backpocket that he was supposed to reserve for Bender and slapped them over her wrists.

  “Ace!” She tried to squirm out from his hold.

  He took the scarf from her neck and used it to gag her. “I’m sorry, Rhea. I can’t let you do this. You’re right. Someone has to go in there. But by God, it won’t be you.”

  Picking her up, he carried her to a locker and set her inside even while she fought against him.

  Rhea was furious. Ace could see it plainly in her brown eyes as he shut the door and locked it. But it was better she be pissed than dead.

  “All right, Krux,” he said to himself under his breath. “It’s time to do the nasty.”

  Personally, he’d rather be dead, but what was a little dignity compared to Rhea’s life?

  “Well, it worked for Tim Curry.” Ace surveyed himself with a critical eye. He definitely wouldn’t win a beauty pageant. With any luck, Bender might even be half-blind.

  Or half-drunk.

  It was dark in the rooms…maybe Bender wouldn’t notice much.

  Maybe.

  “I am so fired,” he muttered. But it would be worth it.

  He hoped.

  Pulling his garter belt straight, he headed down the hallway to the room where Bender should be waiting.

  Sure enough, the man was there. He had on a long, black PVC coat with buckles and straps that looked strangely close to a straitjacket. At least the man did have on a pair of glasses. Maybe he would be blind as a bat.

  “Who are you?” Bender asked in German, curling his lip as he surveyed Ace with a disgusted look.

  “Latex…Bettie.” Ace tried not to cringe at the latter as he kept his voice high and singsongy in an effort to mimic some kind of European accent while he spoke German. Hell, he hadn’t been born in Hollywood for nothing.

  He would just remember that this was to save Rhea and all the other innocent victims Bender intended to prey upon.

  Bender cocked his head. “You don’t look like Bettie Page.”

  Ace put his hands on his hips and feigned indignation. “And you don’t look like Brad Pitt, but notice I’m not complaining.”

  Bender gave him an arched glare. “You are uppity. I like that in a woman. Now show me your tits.”

  Yeah, right.

  “How about first we see yours?”

  Before Bender could leave or call for help, Ace seized him, ripped his coat, and pulled it down on his arms so that he was bound and unable to move.

  “Ah,” Ace said with a tsk in his faked accent. “You have not been working out, Herr Bender. What do you do that you are so weak in the arms?”

  “See here, I—”

  “Shh,” Ace said, cutting him off. “Bettie will take care of you, Schatz.” Provided “Bettie” didn’t toss her cookies in revulsion. “Tell her what you want done to you.”

  Hopefully it involved a bullwhip and this guy’s ass on the floor.

  Bender shouted furiously, “Let me go!”

  “Nein, nein. You have paid for the hour of domination and an hour you will get. Now tell Bettie what she wants to hear.”

  Rhea was ready to choke the life out of Ace by the time the door to her locker was opened.

  She looked out to see Retter, who whistled low.

  “Nice outfit, Rhea.”

  She glared at him as he removed her gag.

  “Where the hell is he?” she snapped.

  “Up shit creek.”

  “Good. Now give me the paddle so I can beat him with it.”

  Retter laughed as he unlocked the cuffs.

  Rhea rubbed her sore wrists as she continued to glare at Retter. At six-four, he was every bit as handsome as Ace, but nowhere near to dying as Ace was at the moment.

  Just wait until she got her hands on him.

  “He blew it, didn’t he?” she asked.

  Retter set the cuffs aside. “Yes and no.”

  “What do you
mean yes and no?”

  “I think your boyfriend has quite a future as a dominatrix.”

  Rhea frowned, but Retter didn’t elaborate. Instead, he handed her his jacket, then led her out into the hallway where there were several German agents along with Joe and members of the CIA and Interpol.

  “What’s going on here?” she asked Joe. “Where’s Ace?”

  “In custody.”

  Her stomach clenched. “Custody? Whose? For what?”

  “Ours,” Retter said. “For being the ugliest transvestite in the history of humanity. I swear, we ought to be allowed to kill Bender for sheer, blind stupidity alone.”

  Rhea was even more confused. “What?”

  “Ace went in as you, or rather as Latex Bettie,” Joe explained.

  Her heart stopped beating at the thought of Ace trying to pose as a woman. Yeah, right! Ace would never pass as a female. He was far too masculine.

  “Oh, no. Did Bender get away?”

  “No,” Joe said. “We got him, along with a full confession.”

  Rhea gaped. “How?”

  Retter let out a deep, evil laugh. “Latex Bettie wields a mean whip. He had Bender spilling more guts than a kosher butcher.”

  “So why is Ace in custody then?” Rhea asked.

  “Mostly for pissing me off by not following orders,” Joe said in a surly tone. “He’s lucky I don’t let the German authorities keep him.”

  Retter gave a crooked grin. “I can arrange that, if you want.”

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  “Can I see him?” Rhea asked.

  “Trust me,” Retter said. “You don’t want to see him. Think Frank-N-Furter gone bad. Real bad.”

  Why was it every time Retter spoke, he only confused her more. “Frank-N-Furter?”

  “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” He shuddered.

  “C’mon,” Joe said, leading her away from Retter. “I have Ace in a room down here.”

  She followed Joe down the garish hallway to a small room where Dieter sat with a cold pack held to his jaw while Dagmar stroked his hair.

  Dieter glared at them. “I’m going to kill him, Joe.”

  “I know, Dieter, hang around and I might authorize it.”

  “If you don’t,” Dagmar snapped, “I will. How dare he hit my Dieter. I want his tenticles cut off.”