Business or Pleasure (The Department of Homeworld Security Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Blurb

  Copyright

  Dedication

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  A Note for the Reader

  About the Author

  Look for More Titles by Cassandra Chandler

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Blurb

  Copyright

  Dedication

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  A Note for the Reader

  About the Author

  Look for More Titles by Cassandra Chandler

  Business or Pleasure

  The Department of Homeworld Security

  Book Three

  Cassandra Chandler

  He’ll have to do more than guard her body.

  Paige Sloan has dedicated her life to protecting Earth’s ecosystems. She thought that meant dealing with human mistakes, until her latest test samples put her on the hit list of an invasive species—of aliens. The Tau Ceti are trying to create a base on Earth, and Paige is the only person alive who knows where those samples were taken.

  Khel has been sent to protect Paige and bring her to the Coalition spaceship orbiting Earth. He has no idea what he’s in for when he approaches the incredibly independent and intractable Earthling. Her passion for her planet is strong enough to burn down the walls he’s created in himself to be the perfect Sadirian soldier—and it lights a flame of desire in him unlike any he’s ever known.

  When their passions merge, will they find that their physical attraction is the start of something more?

  This is the second edition of the same novella originally released in June of 2016.

  Approximately 25,000 words.

  Copyright Page

  You are a good person! You know that stealing is wrong. Remember, eBooks can’t be shared or given away. It’s against copyright law. So don’t download books you haven’t paid for or upload books in ways other people can access for free. That would be stealing.

  And you’re better than that.

  This book is pure fiction. All characters, places, names, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used solely in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any people, places, things, or events that have ever existed or will ever exist is entirely coincidental.

  Business or Pleasure

  The Department of Homeworld Security, Book Three

  Copyright © 2016 by Cassandra Chandler

  ISBN: 978-0-9974486-1-0

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used, transmitted, or reproduced in any manner or form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews.

  First eBook edition: June 2016

  Second eBook edition: May 2017

  cassandra-chandler.com

  P.O. Box 91

  Mission, Kansas 66201

  Dedication

  For my husband—it’s always a pleasure.

  Chapter One

  At six-thirty on Saturday mornings, the gym was usually deserted. It was therefore Paige’s favorite workout of the week. She had already completed a few circuits on the weight machines and was enjoying being the only person using the line of treadmills as she cooled down. After the week she’d had, she needed the break from human contact.

  Her playlist abruptly switched to her brother Brendan’s ringtone. Damn.

  Thanks to him, all she had to do to answer was tap her right earbud. He had hooked her up with technology he’d designed himself. The earbuds included tiny microphones that could pick up her voice even if she was whispering, while filtering out ambient noise and making her hands-free talking crystal clear. The phone’s reception was good enough that she wondered if he was tapping into one of the secret government satellites he worked on.

  Allegedly.

  The downside of the awesome tech was that she felt obligated to answer every time he called her with it. She sighed, then tapped the earbud.

  “Morning, bro. What’s up?”

  “Hey. You’re at the gym, right?”

  She hesitated before answering. “Yeah.”

  “I figured. How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine, everything is fine…”

  Except it really wasn’t. Jim—Senator Conroy—was dead. Today’s workout was as much about grief and catharsis as keeping up with her physical health. She wasn’t just sad to lose the best boss she’d ever had. Senator Conroy had been a passionate visionary. He was determined to tighten environmental laws.

  Her team, which consisted of her and two ever-changing temporary interns from the local college, had been working several sites in Louisiana for three years before Jim came on board, giving her renewed hope that she could make a difference. He had been in office less than a month when his plane crashed.

  Maybe Brendan was just calling to check up on her.

  “I’m sending someone over,” he said.

  She let out another sigh, deeper than the first. “Seriously? We’re not even in the same state.”

  “I have a…friend in the area,” he said. “He should be there any minute.”

  “How do you even know what gym I’m at?”

  “Uh…”

  “Don’t bother answering.”

  Brendan was overprotective to the point of paranoia. She had finally been able to get him to stop hiring and assigning her bodyguards by agreeing to carry a panic button with her at all times. Brendan had designed it to look like lipstick. She wasn’t sure how it worked—she just knew to press the button and it would send him some sort of signal that let him know where she was and that she was in trouble.

  “I’ve told you before, I refuse to let your work impact my life. You want to work on top secret stuff—”

  “Paige—”

  “—that’s your business. But I’m not going to walk around with ex-military private security goons following me just to make you feel better about your life choices.”

  “Paige!”

  Brendan never yelled. She stopped ranting.

  “This isn’t about me or my work,” he said. “It’s about you.”

  “What about me?”

  “Whatever you’re working on has caught the attention of…unsavory types.”

  She let out a brief laugh. “I can’t even get people to believe global climate change is real, let alone that it’s impacting key ecosystems. I doubt anybody sees my work as a threat, especially now that Senator Conroy is gone.”

  “I wish that was the case. Listen to me very carefully. I can’t speak openly right now.”

  She snorted. Right, Brendan couldn’t speak openly on the incredibly advanced, encoded system that he had designed. She was pretty sure the government would be pissed if they ever found out she was walking around with the tech he had given her. Brendan had assured her when he set her up with her phone and panic button that no one would know about it and his gifts wouldn’t pose a threat to national security
. The last thing she wanted was to be walking around with classified technology.

  As rudimentary as he claimed it to be, her calls were still supposed to be one-hundred percent unhackable. If Brendan couldn’t talk freely, that meant either he had been pulled back in by the government and they were eavesdropping using the tech he had designed for them, or the much more terrifying possibility—someone was with him that Brendan deemed a threat.

  “You don’t need a wormhole, do you?”

  That was their code for a dangerous situation they needed a miracle to get out of—like the sudden appearance of a stable wormhole. His answer would let her know if he was safe. He laughed, and some of the tension in her chest receded.

  “Not in the sense you mean. You wouldn’t believe… Well, anyway, I’m in a safe spot. And I’m sending someone to bring you here. We need to talk.”

  “I’m glad you’re safe, but I’m not leaving.”

  “Paige—”

  “If I’m on someone’s radar, that means I’m onto something. I’m not about to drop it.” Whatever it was.

  Most people would consider her overworked, but she didn’t care about the long hours. She was dedicated to helping the planet. The problem with the heavy workload was that she had so many locations and projects she was tracking, she had no clue which one had pushed someone’s buttons.

  Brendan’s call had spooked her though. She glanced around the gym, noting that several people had filtered in while they spoke. Everyone seemed absorbed in their workouts.

  “I’m not telling you to abandon your work,” Brendan said. “I’m saying there’s more going on here than you realize. Much more. You’re going to need help, whether you want it or not.”

  “I don’t want one of your…”

  A tall man stepped into the main workout room. He was pale and blond, his hair cut short on the sides and back with bangs that fell partway down his forehead. His gray T-shirt pulled tight across the most gorgeous pecs she had ever seen. His broad shoulders perfectly offset his narrow hips and accented his V figure. Tight jeans encased his long legs, all the way down to…black boots.

  She rolled her eyes. He might have been able to fool her if not for the boots. Well, and the stance. The way he walked screamed military. The question at the front of her mind became—was he Brendan’s guy or someone else’s?

  “Tell me more about this friend you’re sending.”

  “He’s tall. Looks like Thor. Not like movie-Thor, but actual God of Lighting-Thor.”

  She grinned. “And you felt safe sending him to watch over your baby sister?”

  Before Brendan had made her the panic button, Paige had seduced a few of the more attractive bodyguards he tried to saddle her with. It was a great way to let off steam, but invariably had led to them wanting more of a commitment. She was already committed to her work. Still, it worked for getting them to quit and gave her fuel to tease her brother.

  “Please try to take this seriously. Khel will keep you safe and explain as much as he can.”

  “Kel?”

  “K-H-E-L. Go easy on him. He’s not from around here.”

  “I’ll make sure he feels welcome.” She purred the words, wanting to make Brendan uncomfortable. He should be for intruding in her life this way—again.

  “Yeah, good luck with that. And gross.” Brendan laughed as if he knew something she didn’t. Which wasn’t that unusual. He was quiet for a moment, then said, “I love you, sis.”

  “I love you, too. Be safe.”

  “And you.”

  She tapped the earbud to end the call, then turned off her music. That had been their standard wrap up to a conversation, but there was a new tension to it. The teasing had been more strained, and that pause before his, ‘I love you…’

  She tried to shake off the unease and focused instead on the hottie headed her way. This guy might be enough for her to chance a fling. Her body was already tingling just from watching him approach. He was scanning the room, his brows drawn together so tight they almost touched in the center of his forehead. When he reached her, he stared at her legs.

  Okay, he was a leg guy. After a few moments longer than a normal person would stare, he cleared his throat and said, “Paige Sloan. I am Khel.”

  He cut himself off, as if he was used to saying something more than that. Probably rank and serial number.

  “Khel. I am Paige Sloan,” she parroted back. He didn’t pick up on the teasing. If anything, he seemed reassured by her mocking response.

  “Your brother has sent me to secure your safety. We must leave at once.”

  “My brother is not in charge of me. Nor are you. We will leave when I’m good and ready.”

  His mouth dropped open, then shut, then opened, then shut. Like a giant thunder-god goldfish.

  She laughed. He scowled.

  Right, she was supposed to take it easy on him.

  “I’m almost done with my workout. Surely the world won’t end if I spend another minute on the treadmill.”

  He stared at her feet, then looked back over the room. She thought he was checking for threats again, but then he said, “What are you all doing?”

  “We’re working out.”

  The treadmill beeped and she hit the button to turn it off. He glanced back at her as she jumped down and grabbed her towel. She felt a bead of sweat run between her cleavage and noticed how his gaze followed it. She blotted at her neck as she stepped in close.

  Standing on the floor instead of the treadmill, he was even taller than she thought. She had to crane her neck back to look at him. He had that same confused scowl on his face.

  “You know,” she said. “Exercise?”

  Nothing.

  She gestured to his physique. “How do you stay in such great shape?”

  “Now is not the time for questions,” he said.

  Eyeing him up and down, she made her voice breathy as she said, “Then I guess you can leave it to my imagination.”

  His gaze snapped back to hers and his lips thinned as he pressed them together. She turned and headed for the locker room, grinning as he fell in step behind her.

  “We must leave at once,” he said.

  “Not until I shower.” She pulled out her earbuds and tucked them into the back pocket of her workout shorts next to her phone.

  “This shower can not be more important than your safety. The longer we delay, the more opportunities our enemies will have to attack.”

  He sounded like one of Brendan’s cosplaying friends. For a moment, she wondered if the whole thing was an elaborate charade.

  “If this is Brendan playing a practical joke on me, I’m going to kick his ass when I see him.”

  “That is outside the scope of my orders.”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed open the door to the women’s locker room. Khel followed her in.

  “Um, Khel?”

  “Yes?”

  He stopped when she did, glancing around the room. If this was a joke, he was taking it pretty seriously. He also didn’t seem disturbed at all at being in a women’s locker room.

  “You’re not supposed to be in here,” she said.

  “I go where you go.”

  He fixed his gaze on her, clear blue eyes boring through her. She decided to have a little fun.

  “Okay.”

  She gripped the bottom of her sports bra—the only top she wore while working out—and pulled it over her head, smirking. His gaze flicked to her chest, then back to her face. He didn’t even look like he was trying not to look.

  She wasn’t used to men ignoring her body. She worked hard to be attractive. It helped her self-esteem and prevented her from having to endure lonely nights when she felt like a little company. She was stacked and never had trouble finding men who considered the red hair and blue eyes a bonus.

  Khel didn’t flinch, didn’t twitch, didn’t alter his expression or body language one iota. He just stared at her. At her face.

  “Proceed,” he said.
r />   Wow. That pinged her ego. She turned around and walked to her locker.

  Whatever. He wasn’t into her. It had happened before and would happen again. She had to admit she was disappointed, though. He was gorgeous and it had been a while since she’d indulged in a carnal weekend with anyone.

  She finished stripping and threw her workout clothes into a bag, then grabbed her toiletries and slid on some flip-flops. Khel stood at the end of the row of lockers, looking left and right. Good thing the locker room was empty.

  As she walked past him to the showers, he started after her. The thought of him watching her shower with that cold stare set her teeth on edge.

  “Not so fast.” She turned around and planted a hand on his chest.

  Heat and warmth flooded into her. His chest was rock-hard, and damn, those shoulders. She could grab onto them and do all sorts of things…

  Khel sucked in a huge breath and held it. Okay. That was a response. But she wasn’t into mixed signals. She pulled her hand away.

  “This is as far as you go,” she said.

  “I am ordered to see to your safety.”

  “I don’t care what my brother says.”

  He bristled. “I don’t take orders from a…Brendan.”

  A Brendan?

  She finished his original sentence in her head. He doesn’t take orders from a civilian.

  Shit. Khel was military, but not ‘ex’. Brendan had told her he was taking a break from his projects. He must have been pulled back in—and somehow she was swept up with it.

  Yes, technically they both worked for the government, and yes, she had received a certain level of clearance based on whatever the hell he was working on. But she had her own life, her own job, her own cause.

  She would not be controlled.

  Chapter Two

  “I don’t know who you work for, but you can tell them to go straight to hell.”

  This Earthling was infuriating. Khel had told her she was in danger and the first thing she had done was strip naked.