Chapter Seventeen
Dana
I was on my way to meet Charlie at the coffee shop near the campus, my emotions hovering somewhere between anxiety and anticipation. He had finally returned my calls. It was the first time I’d seen Charlie for a week, maybe even longer—I’d lost track of the days—ever since the night he’d been admitted to the emergency room. Where he disappeared to during that time I still didn’t know, but I was anxious to see him and to make sure that he was okay. At the same time, I was afraid that once he learned that his debt had been paid off, and that I had paid it, he would have questions. Plenty of questions.
I knew what Charlie would think if he knew the truth. I would’ve thought the very same thing not long ago. How could someone do that? How could someone be tempted to agree to such an outrageous proposition? But I guess that unless you found yourself in such a position, literally between a rock and a hard place, we could never be certain, not absolutely certain, of what we would or would not do.
I knew Charlie would have questions. Questions that I knew I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want Charlie to be disappointed in me, to feel beholden or guilty, and those were exactly the emotions that he would feel. If the shoe were on the other foot, I’d feel the same way. If I wanted to be blunt about it, I had to admit to myself that I had literally sold myself to a man for a year. Neither my reasoning nor my rationale for doing so mattered. Thinking of it that way was appalling even to me, and I couldn’t ever tell Charlie the truth.
Nevertheless, I had to at least try to be honest with myself. It wasn’t just the thought of Charlie’s guilt that I dealt with. It was Charlie’s opinion of me. While Charlie had no right to call any kettle black, I never ever wanted to lose his respect. We fought and argued just like any other siblings, but I had always been the one to set the example. I was always the one who walked the tight and narrow, took the high road, did the right thing.
What I was doing was definitely, absolutely, positively not the right thing, but how could I ever explain my reasoning to Charlie? Would he ever understand? If he knew the truth, would he ever forgive me?
I pushed such thoughts out of my mind and refused to allow the self-doubt to creep in. Believe me, I had enough of that when I was by myself. I had done it and that was that. No going back. Water under the bridge. No use crying over spilt milk, no matter who had spilled it.
What was done was done.
I would tell him that I had met someone… someone with money, and he had graciously offered to pay off his debt. That’s all I would say. Now that I had a story firmly fixed in my mind, I approached the coffee shop. As I passed in front of one of the large glass windows toward the front door, I glanced inside and saw Charlie sitting in a booth. Just the sight of him brightened my spirits. He looked okay. I quickly entered and made my way toward his booth where he sat clasping a heavy porcelain cup half filled with coffee.
“Hey, Charlie,” I said, smiling as I sat down. “You don’t know how relieved I am to see you.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled, pausing to lift the coffee mug to his lips. “I’ve been trying to lay low.”
“Where? I looked for you everywhere. Called you at least a hundred times.”
He grinned. “Twenty-three to be exact, and that’s not counting the text messages, but who’s counting? I kept my phone off most of the time because I left my charger at my apartment, and I figured that bastard would be keeping an eye on it.”
It was a lame excuse, and I told him so. “You couldn’t find any other way to contact me, to let me know that you were okay? You have no idea how worried I was, Charlie.”
“Like I said, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want Slim Pete or his goons getting their hands on me again.”
Neither one of us said anything as I studied him. He looked tired and thinner, even though it had only been a week or so, but his eyes weren’t bloodshot, nor were his pupils dilated. He wasn’t drunk or high.
“I heard that my debt’s been settled.”
I said nothing.
“Where did you come up with that kind of money, Dana?”
He asked the question quietly, though his gaze didn’t waver. Now that the moment of reckoning had come, I chickened out. “I didn’t do anything illegal, Charlie,” I said. “I’d rather you not know, but—”
To my surprise, tears glistened in his eyes, and he reached a hand across the table to clasp mine. The gesture triggered a surge of emotion, and I quickly blinked back my own tears. “I’d do anything for you, Charlie, and you know that. But I didn’t do anything horrible, okay? And nothing illegal. But you have to promise me that you’ll never make a bet with Slim Pete or anyone else again.”
“I promise,” he said, turning toward the window.
“I mean it, Charlie,” I said, my heart heavy. “This is the last time that I can cover for you. It’s not just the money. It’s the… it’s hard, you know?”
He gently pulled his hand from my grasp and turned toward me, once again toying with the coffee cup, wrapping his palms around it as if warding off an imaginary chill.
“I know I’m a screw-up, Dana, but I’m really going to try now. Really.”
“You’re not a screw-up, Charlie, you’re just lost. And I wish I could help you find your way, but that’s something you have to do on your own.” I paused, then remarked on his appearance. “You look like you’ve lost a few pounds. Have you been eating?”
“No, I’ve been hiding.”
“Let’s get something to eat.” Before he could stop me, I turned and gained the attention of the waitress and ordered each of us a turkey club sandwich, an order of fries, and two sodas. I turned back to him, but once again he looked out the window, his jaw firm. Not for the first time, I wondered what was going on in that mind if his.
“Charlie?” He turned toward me. “Charlie, are you using drugs again?” I was afraid for him to answer and afraid for him not to.
He shook his head and spoke softly. “No, Dana, I’m not. I’ve just been worried and haven’t been getting much sleep.”
“That’s it?”
He offered a small humorless laugh. “Yeah, that’s it.”
Our lunch arrived and we ate, me slowly, him wolfing it all down so quickly that I asked if he wanted another serving. Wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, he shook his head and then snatched a few French fries off my own plate. I didn’t mind. My heart broke for him. Poor Charlie. Always struggling, always on the wrong side of luck, always looking for something that I don’t even think he recognized.
“Where did you get the money, Dana?”
The question came out of the blue and surprised me. “It’s not important.”
“Yeah, it is. To me.”
And so I told the lie. “I met someone, Charlie, a while back.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
And the lie grew. “I didn’t want to say anything about it until… well, until we got a little more serious.”
“How serious?”
I glanced at him, surprised at the suspicion in his voice. Was little brother now playing big brother? Protective brother? It was a little late for that. “I’m planning to move in with him serious.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “And he gave you the money? Just like that?”
I nodded and tried to keep my voice cheerful. “Just like that.”
I glanced down at my watch, as if I had someplace I had to be. Which I did. I was supposed to meet Brady in his office in a little while. I dug into my purse and open my wallet, extracting some cash. “There’s about $200 here, Charlie.” I spoke quickly so that he wouldn’t have a chance to ask more questions. “Please, buy yourself some food. Don’t spend it on drugs, not alcohol, and definitely not on gambling. Food.”
He acted like he didn’t want to take it, but I shoved it into his hand. “Don’t be a stranger, Charlie,” I said, rising from the booth. “I have an appointment I need to get to, but we’ll talk in a day or two, okay?”
He nodded but said nothing, tucking the money into his front jeans pocket. He watched me leave. I felt his eyes on my back until I left the coffee shop. I turned left, not wanting to walk in front of the window where Charlie sat. He might see my face crumple with the weight of the lie I’d just told him. Might see my guilt, and yes, even some shame that I had agreed to Brady’s outrageous plan in the first place.
At the corner, I prepared to cross, but then noticed the car. The same car that had been sitting across the street the day I paid Slim Pete his fifty grand. My nerves already a bit on the shaky side from my meeting with Charlie, and perturbed that that slime ball Slim Pete would still be watching Charlie, or me, I marched across the street to confront the driver. Before I could get his car, though, the car started and pulled away from the curb. I had no doubt that the car belonged to one of Pete’s minions.
He was up to something. Something no good.
*
By the time the taxi pulled up in front of the Shaw Properties & Investments building in downtown, I felt unsettled. A man was following Charlie, or maybe me, maybe even both of us. I didn’t like it, not one bit. I had hoped that once he got paid off, Slim Pete would disappear, but it was obvious that he was shadowing Charlie. Hoping for a misstep? Hoping to entice him into another deal, another bet? I hoped not, but people like Slim Pete were not people that I wanted anywhere near Charlie, or me.
I decided that perhaps it was time to come clean to Brady about the reason I had asked for the fifty-grand up front. One of the two main reasons I had agreed to this ludicrous deal in the first place. Charlie’s debt and my schooling. Both very important, but I had to face the truth. If Charlie hadn’t been in trouble, would I have agreed to Brady’s proposition just for myself? I pondered, and had been pondering that question for days now. To what point was my acceptance of this deal justified?
The cabbie pulled up along the curb in front of the imposing glass and steel structure, one of the more recent developments on this side of town. I reached into my purse and paid the cabbie and then stepped out. I stood on the sidewalk for several moments, looking upward at the structure, a myriad of thoughts racing through my brain.
I still found it hard to believe that all of this was real. That just last week I had been living in my studio apartment, struggling to get through school, focused only on completing my education so that I could get a job that would pay a decent wage. And now here I was, living with a billionaire, making deals that a week ago I would have vigorously protested and condemned.
Not to mention the fact that I felt myself growing increasingly attracted to Brady. I had told him no sex, but we had been going at it like rabbits over the past few days. And you know what? I didn’t mind. He was exquisitely gifted in that department, and I couldn’t deny the pleasure he gave me. But it was more than that. In the beginning, when I had first met him at that golf resort, I figured he was nothing but a stuck-up, arrogant, self-important jerk.
And now? Now that I had spent more time with him, I realized that everyone had their own motivations for taking drastic measures. In my mind, I had taken on this proposition to save Charlie and my future education. But what motivated Brady to offer it? Was it merely because he didn’t want to take over his dad’s business and his dad had threatened him with one of the most abhorrent ultimatums, a jaw-dropping threat I had never heard of before. What kind of father did that to his son? While I couldn’t relate to Brady’s reasoning for this bet, I knew that for him, it was just as serious as mine, at least personally. I had no room to judge his reasoning any more than he had a right to judge mine.
I stepped into the foyer of the office building, more than a little self-conscious wearing my jeans, linen shirt, and tennis shoes. Women in tailored outfits and men with their business suits made their way across the foyer, entering or exiting, some waiting at the elevator banks. I got more than a few curious looks. While my first thought was to look for the stairway, thinking to take the stairs up to avoid those looks, I resisted the urge. As if I couldn’t care less what they thought, and I didn’t, not really. I straighten my shoulders and lifted my chin, not quite to the point where I was sticking my nose in the air, but close to it. What a bunch of snobs.
How dare they look down their noses at me, judging me, making me feel little. Someday, one of those people could very well be lying on a gurney in an emergency department while I desperately tried to save their lives. Maybe they wouldn’t be so stuck-up then, would they?
I stepped into the elevator with two gentlemen and a woman, me standing on one side of the car, they on the other as if an invisible barrier separated us. I snickered softly as I pressed the button for the twelfth floor and then ignored them as the elevator moved and slowly rose. The woman got off on the fifth floor, one of the gentlemen on the seventh, but then it stopped on the twelfth. I stepped out and stood a moment in the hallway while the elevator doors swished closed behind me.
I wasn’t sure which office belong to Brady. I hadn’t been here before. He simply told me to go up to the twelfth floor, where he had an office. I saw a reception desk just around the corner from the bank of elevators and stepped up to it. The woman behind it, about my age, did a double-take, and then smiled politely.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m here to see Brady Shaw. My name is Dana Sommer.”
“You have an appointment?”
“Do I need one?” She seemed slightly taken aback, but my gaze never left hers.
“Actually, you do—”
“Call his office and tell him his fiancée is here,” I said. I barely held back a grin as her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, all the while giving me one of those ‘looks’ that said it all. Looking down her nose at me too. She frowned slightly and then turned to her phone, pressed a button, and paused, glancing at me once with an awkward smile.
“Mister Shaw, you have a visitor… yes, a Miss Dana Sommer… yes, thank you.”
The receptionist gestured with her hand. “His office is at the end of the hall, the last door on the right.”
“Thank you.” I turned and headed down the hallway. By the time I got to the last door on the right, I saw it open and Brady peeked his head out, a grin on his face as he looked at me, and then past me toward the receptionist desk. He chuckled.
“You’re being stared at.”
“I know.” I smiled. “Could it be my clothes?” I said, not really tongue-in-cheek. He laughed as I stepped into his office. He closed the door behind him, and before I could get another word out, he had me against his office door, his chest pressed against mine, his mouth aiming for mine. I heard the doorknob click as he locked it, and then… well, let’s just say that in a matter of seconds, my linen shirt lay in a puddle on the floor, his hands groped my breasts, and my own hands quite anxiously unzipped his pants.
Before I knew it, we were both stark naked. Once again, I found myself fascinated with his physique. I had never thought of myself as shallow, but those muscles, those broad shoulders, narrow waist and perfect ass were hard to ignore. My baser instincts took over any time I even got a glimpse of his body. So did my previous self-control. He was forbidden fruit, and boy was I indulging! I glanced down, marveling at the contrast of his tanned, strong fingers cupping my white breasts, relishing the sensations that his touch evoked in me.
So much for refusing sex, I thought as we both sank down to the floor, as if on cue—as if both of us were unsteady on our own feet. Before I knew it, he was on his back and I was on my hands and knees straddling him, our tongues playing tag, his hands skimming along my back, down my ass, and then meandering their way up between my thighs. Teasing, until, much to my surprise and delight, he slid downward, my breasts hanging down, my nipples within easy access of his mouth.
Once again, he took advantage and I moaned, reveling in the sensations that gifted tongue of his created within me, igniting every cell in my body and leaving me inflamed with desire. My hips responded to my urges, and he left off with his suckling and scooted further down, his hands still cupping my breasts while he maneuvered himself until his mouth was directly below my pussy. His tongue flicked and swirled around my clitoris. I felt myself grow increasingly wet as my hips slowly gyrated and circled over him. I wanted him to bury himself within me, but when I moved he grunted, urging me to remain on my hands and knees.
That I did manage to do, but I couldn’t stop my hips from slowly rocking, encouraged by the movements of his tongue, the way his lips kissed me down there, and then once again, swirled, flicked, and suckled. I tried to quell my moans, but it grew increasingly difficult. My hips rocked faster, the pressure of his tongue deepened, and he suckled, hard. And then his tongue slid inside. My heart pounding, my ears ringing, my body alive with pleasure, I felt my climax building. He retreated, his mouth once again latching onto my clitoris. Everything exploded in a flash of white sensation. Every muscle in my body contracted with the force of my orgasm. My back arched, my thighs tightened around his head, and I hissed an intake of breath. His movements gentle, his tongue slowly and sensuously nibbling along my wetness as my hips slowed, and my orgasm had me breaking out in goose bumps. I rocked until the waves ebbed, and then my hips slowed and my arms began to shake. He kissed me gently. The gesture tipped me over the edge.
I quickly rolled onto my back, knees spread, pulling him with me, reaching for his engorged cock, and guiding him toward entrance. He smiled down at me, but I couldn’t wait. His head against my opening, I lifted my hips upward and reached for his ass, pulling him deep inside. He paused, frozen for a moment, smiling down at me, and then slowly began to move, his weight braced on his forearms. I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist, my heels pressed against his buttocks. Urging him deeper.
He didn’t kiss me, but simply stared down at me, and not feeling the least bit self-conscious, I grinned back, lifting my hips upward, gyrating slightly at the top, and then relaxing, meeting him thrust for thrust. In a matter of seconds, he too climaxed. I felt the undulating surge of hot liquid release inside me, and despite the sensations rushing once again through my body, I couldn’t help but feel an instant of deep-seated fear. Fear of getting pregnant. I knew that getting pregnant was part of the deal, but having sex with Brady, making love to him like this, knowing what the result might be—I couldn’t quell my sudden uncertainty.
And then Brady smiled down at me, and for the moment, at least, my fear dissipated. Everything would work out all right. I forgot everything at that moment except for the look on Brady’s face. I wasn’t thinking of Charlie. I wasn’t thinking of the goons watching him or me. I didn’t want to worry about tomorrow. I just wanted to revel in the moment.
And so I did.