Dangerous Kisses (Siren Publishing Classic)

  Dangerous Kisses

  Homicide Detective Megan Pontius hungers for a dark side of sex she’s never experienced, and she knows the man to give it to her, if only he didn’t scare her to her toes. She’s kept her distance from aquarist Drake Allen, knowing one kiss could be dangerous to her body and heart. But when a mutual friend is killed and Drake is the primary suspect, she finds herself wondering if she’s submitting to the domination of a murderer.

  Drake wants Megan under his control, and he wants her forever. He’s bided his time, waiting for her to be willing to set her inner lustful demon free. That time has come, and he’s ready to deliver her pleasures more exotic than any she’s ever known. But when he finds himself accused of murder, he discovers he needs Megan more than just in his bed. She’s his only hope of proving his innocence, but does she believe him?

  Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Suspense

  Length: 45,164 words

  DANGEROUS KISSES

  Tonya Ramagos

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  DANGEROUS KISSES

  Copyright © 2012 by Tonya Ramagos

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-643-1

  First E-book Publication: October 2012

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Dangerous Kisses by Tonya Ramagos from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Tonya Ramagos’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Ramagos’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DANGEROUS KISSES

  TONYA RAMAGOS

  Copyright © 2012

  Chapter One

  Desire rode on a hot tide of imagined pleasure as Megan Pontius peered through the office glass of the M.P. Colton Aquarium. Visitors swarmed the lobby below, excitement evident on their faces. But one body stood out in the crowd.

  Drake Allen. Her heart rate climbed with her gaze as she started at his bare feet and worked her way up his black, skin-tight wetsuit. Strongly defined calves led her gaze to the backs of his powerful thighs. Her attention paused on his delectable ass, and desire looped through her, tightening its hold on her like a satin ribbon. Wetness slickened her pussy lips as she continued her upward assessment to his narrow waist, broad shoulders, and ebony hair. No doubt about it, the man was pure temptation wrapped in a six-foot-one package of sheer sex appeal, and she wanted him. Oh, how she wanted him.

  “He’s still single.”

  Megan startled at the statement and quickly averted her gaze from the glass to find Paul Colton standing beside her, a world of knowledge and amusement swirling in his otherwise troubled eyes.

  Paul rested an aging hand on the windowsill, the corners of his lips twitching, causing the wrinkles around his mouth to stand out. “And, unless something has changed since I saw you last, you are, too.”

  No, nothing had changed. She had been living the single life for nearly a year now. It was partly by choice and, though she hated to admit it, partly because of the man below now disappearing through the employee doors at the back of the lobby.

  “You should go talk to him, ask him on a date. Isn’t it socially acceptable these days for the woman to make the first move?”

  Megan gave a half laugh as she turned from the glass and leaned against the windowsill. “I thought you frowned upon your employees socializing while they’re on the clock.”

  “I do. So wait until he is off the clock.” Paul sighed and raked a hand over his balding, gray head. “Although, at the rate things are looking today, that may not be until sometime tomorrow.”

  Megan lifted a brow. “Working your employees around the clock now? That’s not like you. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

  Paul shook his head and walked to his desk. He snagged a cigarette out of the pack on the desktop, lit it, and took a deep drag.

  Megan folded her arms beneath her breasts and studied her old friend and former boss. She had noticed he wasn’t looking too hot when she had first entered the office. The confidant, ambitious, determined man she had always admired seemed to be surrendering to stress and depression. But why?

  “Weren’t you supposed to quit smoking over a year ago?”

  “Let’s just say that backfired.”

  “And increased,” she pointed out mildly. “That’s your third one since I walked into this office less than a half hour ago. When I add that to your current mood, I would say quitting smoking isn’t the only thing that has backfired on you.”

  Paul flicked ashes in a nearby ashtray as he rounded his desk and settled in the swivel chair behind it. “And you would be right. This whole damn place is going wrong on me.”

  Megan shot a quick glance behind her, noting once again the crowded lobby below. “Business looks good.” She hadn’t been to the aquarium in a while, but she couldn’t remember ever seeing so many people here at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon.

  Paul frowned. “It’s not good enough. I’m struggling everyday to keep this place open, Megan.”

  Megan angled her head and drew her brows together. “I would have thought all the tourist action this area sees these days would’ve increased business by a truckload. I know the casinos are the biggest draw to the Biloxi strip, but people don’t gamble the entire time they’re here.”

  “Those damn casinos are the bane of my existence. It’s not enough to have a facility centered around the marine life anymore. People want all the flash and glam to go along with it. They want bigger and better.” He adjusted his face to one an excited patron might make and raised his voice a full octave, adding his best girly imitation to it. “Oh, that shark just swims around a tank? Show me how vicious he can be. I want to watch him bite someone in half.”

  Megan laughed. “Come on, Paul. You know that’s not what people want to see.”

  “It might as well be.” Paul sighed. “I would like to give them what they want. Well, not the whole shark-biting-a person-in-half part, but the bigger and better shows. I know how to make this facility compete with the best aquariums across the country. Having the finances to make it happen, however, is the problem.”

  “And the partners aren’t willing to invest what is necessary to make the improvements.” Megan understood now. Paul was the majority owner of the M.P. Colton Aquarium, but he had three partners with smaller investments in the company as well. She didn’t know much about Brandon Easley, Walter Samuels, or Joan Baxter,
but the little she had gathered about them over the years had told her the aquarium meant far more to Paul than Walter or Joan. She put Brandon in a close second.

  “Just the opposite. They want to sell it.”

  Megan straightened, utterly shocked. “Sell it? You’re kidding, right?”

  Paul huffed a breath. “I wish I was. We’ve been offered a sizeable amount for this place.”

  “By who?”

  Paul waved a frustrated hand in the air. “Some highfalutin suits from Vegas. They don’t want the aquarium. They want the land.”

  “So they can tear down the facility and build another casino.” With the legalization of gambling in Biloxi, land on the main strip had become a hot commodity. Flashy neon lights and pristine architecture now decorated much of the city, stealing what had once been a beautiful Southern belle town.

  “I’m wiped out, Megan. I’m in personal debt to my eyebrows. There is no way I can come up with the money to save this place without help from Brandon, Joan, and Walter.”

  Surprise rendered Megan speechless. Paul had always been a fighter, adamant about making his dreams come true. Was he telling her those dreams were now crumbling around him? Surely he had enough fight left in him to keep that from happening?

  Paul picked up a sheet of paper from the desktop, scowled at it, then put it back down. “Then I’ve got employees doing their damnedest to sabotage the main attractions I have left.”

  Surely he didn’t mean Drake. The man was a class-A aquarist and cage diver with the degrees to back him up. As far as Megan knew, he was the most qualified employee Paul had on staff to tend to the marine life kept in the tanks.

  “Who are you talking about?”

  Paul opened his mouth to answer, but shut it again when someone knocked on the closed office door. The door opened slowly, and his nephew, Robert Warren, peeked his head inside.

  “You wanted to see me, Uncle Paul?”

  “Get in here.” The change in Paul was instantaneous. Anger pumped off the man in waves, hitting Megan with an almost tangible force.

  Oh, Robert. What have you done this time? Megan sighed inwardly as she watched Robert shuffle his clown-sized feet forward until he stood just inside the doorway. Paul had broken his personal rule when he hired Robert, allowing the young man to work for him despite the fact that he was family. Of course, Paul had broken the rule years before when he had hired Megan, too. She wasn’t family, but Paul’s devoted friendship with her parents for most of her life made her close enough to family that few people would argue.

  “What’s up?” Robert asked.

  The way he was fidgeting with the zipper of his wetsuit told Megan he had a good indication of what was up, but had decided to play it dumb. Not a good move, dude. The man had potential. At twenty-four with a biology degree under his belt and an uncle in the perfect position to turn that degree into a real career, the man could have reached for the deepest seas and floated right back to the surface. Unfortunately for Robert, and Paul, Robert rarely took anything seriously. She knew he had gotten that degree by the proverbial skin of his teeth and, if it weren’t for Paul’s wife, Marie, he wouldn’t have the job at the M.P. Colton Aquarium. A job Megan was strongly starting to believe to be in jeopardy.

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Robert,” Paul said through gritted teeth. “You know exactly why I called you in here. You’re fucking irresponsible. You’ve always been irresponsible. But this time, you’re fucking with my life, and I’m not going to let you get away with it.”

  Oh, shit. He is pissed. Megan had seen Paul angry before, but never to the point that he practically had steam coming out of his ears. She watched as he smashed out the cigarette still in his hand and reached for another, not bothering to shake her head. Her attention was riveted on Robert. She had to hand it to the man, his ability to appear oblivious to his screwups got better every time she witnessed it.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, you don’t, huh,” Paul snarled, swiftly straightening his necktie. His eyebrows arched upward. “Then you’re more worthless than I thought. When was the last time you checked the water temperature in the shark tank?”

  The stare Paul leveled on Robert was stony enough to make Megan squirm.

  “A couple of hours ago, right on schedule,” Robert answered. A frown etched itself between thin brows covering a set of dark eyes now clouded with suspicion. “Why?”

  “So you’re telling me you just left the tiger shark and all the others to die?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about your job. What’s the proper temperature for the tank, Mr. Shark Expert?” Paul demanded hotly.

  “Between sixty and eighty degrees,” Robert answered without a second’s hesitation. A satisfied, confident grin spread across his crooked lips.

  He was right. Growing up in a family of marine biologist and working alongside Paul herself before she left for the police academy had given Megan the same knowledge.

  “Sixty and eighty, huh? And you checked it a couple of hours ago?” Paul’s stare turned so hot it could have turned ice to water. “Then why in the hell was it below forty degrees when it was brought to my attention less than an hour ago?”

  All color drained from Robert’s face. His eyes grew wide and his Adam’s apple bobbed in a visible gulp before he finally said, “I—I don’t know.”

  Oh, shit. Tiger sharks were known to be able to adapt to cooler waters of the oceans, but they lived best in the more tropical temperatures. Megan knew the tiger shark kept at the M.P. Colton Aquarium had been held in captivity all its life. Could it adapt to the more friged temperature without suffering ill effects?

  “You want to know why you don’t know?” Paul bellowed at Robert, his tone full of sarcasm. “Because, as usual, you haven’t been doing what you were hired to do.” He stabbed a shaking finger in the air toward Robert. “You’re supposed to be with those sharks every minute you’re on duty. That is the only responsibility you have in this place. I’ve had to pull Drake off his regular job to monitor the temperature and make sure those poor fish don’t keel over on us. And why did I have to put that responsibility on Drake?” He answered his own question before Robert got the chance. “Because you were fucking nowhere to be found!”

  Well, that explained where Drake was headed when she saw him in the lobby a few minutes ago.

  “I was—” Robert started, but Paul shook his head in an obvious refusal to listen.

  “Spare me the babbling bullshit. I’m sick of your excuses.”

  “And I’m sick of being blamed for everything that goes wrong around here,” Robert countered, his own temper obviously rising. “Who brought it to your attention? Who’s the little snitch?” He planted his hands on his hips and waited for an answer.

  Paul coughed, and kept coughing. Megan took a half step forward, fear for her friend surging through her veins. He smoked too much for a man who had let himself get so out of shape. She watched as he flattened a hand on his chest and worried he was about to have a heart attack.

  “Drake,” Paul finally growled between coughs. “The one employee I can count on around here.”

  Robert scoffed. “I should’ve known, the brownnosing, butt-kissing job stealer.” He threw his hands to the ceiling. “What a tattletale! He’s always going behind my back. He watches me like a hawk, like he’s waiting for me to screw up.” He jabbed a stiff finger at his own chest. “If the temperature is wrong, it’s not because of me. Something is wrong with the thermostat, and I bet you haven’t called anyone about it, either.”

  “There is nothing wrong with the thermostat on the tank,” Paul argued, his coughing fit apparently now under control.

  Megan relaxed, albeit marginally. Her focus landed on Robert as he took a full step toward Paul’s desk.

  “Then I suggest you and your little buddy, Drake, keep your grubby fingers off the controls,” Robert sneered. “I wouldn’t put it passed
you to lower the temperature in that tank yourself.”

  “And why in the Sam Hill would I do that?”

  “So you can pin it on me. You want me gone, and you’re just looking for an excuse to make it happen.”

  “You’re damn right I want you gone. I want you out of my office and out of my aquarium. You’re fired.”

  Robert smiled ruefully. “You can’t fire me.”

  “You want to bet, you son of a bitch?” Paul’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ll say it again. You’re fired, and if I ever see you step foot on this property again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

  Robert moved close enough to the desk to put his fisted knuckles on the top and leaned forward.

  Megan took a step closer, too, silently cursing herself for going by her apartment before coming here today after she ended her shift at the department. She had stopped off to change and put her sidearm in her lockbox. Now, she wished she had kept her gun on her.

  “You shouldn’t be throwing out threats like that,” Robert told Paul, his tone low and more dangerous than Megan had ever heard him speak. “You’re the one that’s going to regret this, Uncle Paul.” He straightened and started to back out of the office, but he stopped at the doorway and leveled a glare on Paul that was full of promise and anger. “I’ll make sure you regret this.” He turned and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

  The door opened again almost immediately, and Brandon Easley walked in, an amused smile tilting his lips.

  “Another family squabble?” His gaze flicked to Megan, and his smile widened. “Well, hello there. I haven’t seen you around here in a while.”

  “Brandon.” Megan nodded once and returned his smile. Of Paul’s three partners, she knew Brandon the best, though that still wasn’t saying much. He spent the most time around the aquarium and seemed to care about the facility on a deeper level almost as much as Paul. “How have you been?”