Flirting With Fate
Read Flirting With Fate Online
Authors: Lexi Ryan
Flirting With Fate
Stiletto Girls, Book Two
by Lexi
Ryan
Flirting With Fate,
2nd Edition
Copyright © 2012 by Lexi Ryan
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original
purchaser of this book. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or
distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission
from the author except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection
with a review. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted
materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized
editions.
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to
persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
A digital version of this book was published in November
2009 by Ravenous Romance.
Cover Design by HOT DAMN DESIGNS
www.hotdamndesigns.com
Excerpt
from Accidental Sex Goddess
Dear Reader,
Flirting With Fate
was originally published in 2009.
This revised edition has been thoroughly edited to reflect the change in my
writing style. However, the majority of the story itself remains unchanged.
Although this book can be read alone, it is the second book
in the Stiletto Girls series. Inspired a little bit by my husband’s love of
comic book heroes and a little bit by my love of Charlie’s Angels, the series
is about a group of female PIs with special powers who find love while kicking
bad guy butt.
I’m thrilled to share Josie and Tanner’s story with you. Special
powers and world-saving missions aside, they’re two individuals who have lost
their families who find family in each other.
Just like Stilettos, Inc., this novel crosses a lot of genre
lines—action, suspense, paranormal adventure, and, of course, red hot
romance—and I hope you’ll love it and will look for a new Stiletto Girls story
in summer 2013.
I love to hear from readers, so drop me a note, chat with me
on facebook, or send me a tweet!
Website: http://lexiryan.com
Blog: lexiryan.blogspot.com
Facebook: facebook.com/lexiryan
Twitter: @writerlexiryan
E-mail: [email protected]
Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/qymaH
Thanks for reading!
~Lexi
For Annie, whose friendship, like all the best, defies
geography.
“I need your sperm,” Josie Bovard said, folding
her hands on her desk.
Tanner Wiley narrowed his eyes. He couldn’t deny
he’d had quite a few fantasies that involved Josie and his—er—bodily fluids,
but somehow they’d never played out quite like this in his mind. “Excuse me?”
Josie shifted in her office chair. She pulled off
black-framed reading glasses and tucked a leg under her. Today her hair was
pulled into a knot at the back of her neck, and instead of being dressed as a
blond bombshell, as she so often was in the field, she was in soft cotton pants
and a pink tank top. This Josie was even more mouthwatering to Tanner than the
one who flashed cleavage, wore tight clothes, and left her long hair framing
her face.
He cleared his throat and leaned forward on the
desk that separated them. He’d heard her wrong. “I’m sorry. You need what?”
She leaned forward too, until her face was only inches
from his. All he had to do was lift a couple of inches out of his chair and he
could taste her.
She wrinkled her pert nose. “I. Need. Your.
Sperm.” She enunciated each word as if he had only a loose handle on the
English language. Which seemed to be the case when she was this close and his
nose was filled with the fresh, flowery soap-and-water smell of her.
“Um, couldn’t we go to dinner first? Get to know
each other?”
She smiled, her blue eyes crinkling at the
corners. “Cute.” She passed a file across the desk. “I’d need your person too,
of course, in addition to your little swimmers.”
He leaned back to flip through the file.
“That’s...good to know,” he said. Now it all made perfect sense. “What is
this?”
“It’s a list of all the fertility clinics within a
fifty-mile radius of D.C.”
He narrowed his eyes, and she handed him another
file.
“This is the list of Specials who have registered
with the SIA in the last ten years,” she said, referring to Tanner’s employer.
Tanner was a field agent for the Specials
Intelligence Agency, a secret group of government operatives with special
powers. They worked to keep secret the existence of all Specials—humans with
superhuman powers. Among “other duties as assigned” was keeping the government
and non-Special humans everywhere safe from threats from radical Specials.
Tanner closed the file. “How did you get these?
This is classified information.”
Josie waved a hand. “I had a hunch, pulled some
strings, called in some favors.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“It matters if you have classified intel.”
She steepled her fingers and studied him for a
long moment.
He was no fool. He knew he was being scolded.
“You—and my SIA connection—know I can be trusted,”
she said finally. “Or at least I thought you knew that, but you’re free to
leave.”
He looked at his watch, more to make a point than
to check the time. “Seems to me you need my help.” He did his best to sound
bored.
The truth was, he wanted to know what the hell she
was up to. What did D.C. fertility clinics have to do with recently registered
Specials?
She sighed. “I’d like your help, but I can manage
without you.”
“I’ll need more information. What are you looking
for?”
“I’m not sure.” She turned to her keyboard and
pulled up a spreadsheet. “I’ve run some numbers and found the Specials per
capita have gone up significantly in the last ten years.”
Tanner flipped through the pages and nodded.
“That’s to be expected as more and more Specials comply and register with the
agency.”
Josie typed at her keyboard, reminding him that as
well as being a beauty, Josie was a brain. “Yes, but with that variable taken
into account in addition to the increased awareness and compliance, there’s a
dramatic increase far beyond my projected numbers—specifically in terms of
births in the D.C. area.”
Tanner frowned. “You think fertility clinics are
behind the rise?”
Josie rubbed her neck. “I don’t know yet. I
just...” She stared at the file in his hands.
“You have a feeling,” he supplied.
“Yeah.” Her voice sounded distant. “I just want to
check it out.”
“What exactly will you be looking for?”
“We will be looking for anything…suspicious. It’s not
like we’ll be going in there blind. We have our abilities to help us see what
we can about the doctors and nurses. Anyone who works at any of those clinics
who is a Special or knows about us is a potential lead.”
“But these Specials who have registered in the
last ten years would have been born, what? Sixteen? Twenty? Even thirty years
ago.” There was a hell of a delay between when someone was born and when they
became a Special. Sometimes even more before they realized their power. All in
all, it made Josie’s hunch difficult to track and it would be nearly impossible
to know whether or not it was happening today.
“What’s done is done. If they’re not tampering
with fate now, we won’t worry about it.” She forced a smile and something in
her eyes told him she was lying.
What was she really looking for?
“And I’m guessing this is where I come in?”Tanner
squirmed. Hell, he was really considering this.
“We’ll be the happy infertile couple.”
Yeah, because that was his fantasy. Was the
universe mocking him now? His shit-ass excuse for a childhood hadn’t been
punishment enough for his past life transgressions? “What’s the plan?”
The tensing of her jaw was at odds with her
nonchalant shrug. “Best-case scenario, we feel out the doctors. If we happen to
run into one who is a Special, we’ll find a way to mention we’d like our baby
to…be like us. Then we see what happens. Worst case, we find nothing.”
She was looking for something else, but she wasn’t
saying what.
He pretended he didn’t notice. “That’s a pretty
hefty assumption. What have you seen?”
In addition to being a bombshell beauty with the
body of Angelina Jolie and the brains of Einstein, Josie Bovard was a precog.
By simply touching another person, she could see pieces of that person’s
future, which was precisely why the SIA wanted her on their payroll. Too bad
she’d turned them down flat when she was told she wouldn’t be doing field work.
Josie and her Stilettos, Inc. comrades preferred
to do their own ass kicking—not just gather intel.
“Nothing helpful,” she muttered, taking a sip of
her tea. “Not that I would tell you if I had.”
He sighed and finally asked the question that had
plagued him since she’d sent him the e-mail asking for his help. “Why me? Why
not take Chrissie in? She can go around feeling up employees and figure out
what’s been happening.” Chrissie Elliott’s power was the opposite of Josie’s.
When she touched people, she saw pieces of their past through their memories.
Josie’s face grew somber and long seconds ticked
by as she stared at nothing in particular. “The other girls don’t know about
this project yet. I’ll tell them after Paige’s wedding, but they have enough on
their plates right now.”
Bullshit.
“Busy with wedding stuff? Even
Chrissie?”
“Yeah. Bridesmaid stuff.” She chewed on her lip
and studied him for a beat. “And anyway, Chrissie can’t disappear.”
“So you’re using me for my sperm and my ability.”
Her smile turned to a smirk. “Among other things.”
Her voice was low, husky, and had his balls tightening.
Shit. She might as well pull out the leash. She
had him right where she wanted him and she knew it.
“What’s in it for me?” Might as well pretend she
hadn’t had him whipped since the first moment he’d set eyes on her. “Why should
I help you when you aren’t planning on telling me the whole story?”
“A non-Special child’s right to life isn’t enough
for you?”
Great. He wasn’t whipped. He was just an asshole.
Even better. “You know what happens if we find evidence that some fertility
clinic is manipulating DNA.”
“If there’s anything there, it becomes a federal
case, and we turn our files over to the SIA. I know, I know.”
She knew, but it never seemed to stop her or her
Stiletto Girl partners in crime from carrying on as they pleased anyway.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
She treated him to one of those signature Josie
smiles that made him feel like a fucking god among men. “I’d hoped you would!”
Hell, she’d had him at
sperm
.
Tanner had been summoned to his lieutenant’s
office, which either meant he had a new mission or he was about to get his ass
chewed.
Nicholas Fernandez was seated across from their
superior. Tanner lowered himself into his seat and exchanged a look with his
partner. Several seconds later, Darian Lorring joined them, making their unit
complete.
“I have another case for you,” Lieutenant
Armstrong said. “Something that’s becoming an area of expertise for you three.”
“What are the Stiletto Girls up to now?” Fernandez
asked.
The lieutenant frowned. “It isn’t what they’re up
to. It’s what trouble they’re in. Recent intelligence indicates the Ascendants
are weeks, if not less, from hatching something big.”