Chapter Six — Livvie

“He what?” Remy boomed into the other end of the phone when I told him Christopher had brainwashed Tessa into turning on me and, subsequently, booting me out of the apartment.

“I know, it’s totally jacked.” I took a deep breath. “Remy, I know it’s asking a lot, but is there any way I can come crash at your place until I get something else lined up?”

“Hell, no. You can’t crash here.”

My heart sank. Maybe there was a cheap motel that I could afford week to week…

“You’re moving in with me.”

“Remy—” I started to argue, but then paused at the sound of footsteps in the hall. “I gotta go. I don’t want them to mess with my stuff. Lord only knows who Christopher hired. Probably a bunch of thugs from his record label.”

“Stay in your room. Do not let them in. I’m on my way.”

“Remy! I was just—” The line cut out. “—kidding.”

“Ugh!” I flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, allowing myself a few moments to marvel over how incredibly screwed up things had gotten in the past few weeks. I thought back to when I told Remy that I needed simplicity. Ha! Nothing about this life was simple. But then, mine had never been simple before—why had I ever expected that to change?

I heaved myself off the bed, knowing I wouldn’t find answers to any of my questions staring at the ceiling. I started pulling clothes out of the dresser and folding them into piles on the bed. I needed boxes, and tape, and scissors. All of which the movers probably had.

I glanced towards the door. Remy had told me to stay put, and he was doing his whole macho, “you listen to me, woman” routine and would be furious if I didn’t listen to his instructions. But, I was a practical girl, and knew that it would take him at least twenty minutes—on a good day—to get across town from his high-rise.

“Ms. Sanders?” someone called, knocking softly on the door.

I opened the door. A tall, beanpole guy stood there with a clipboard and a pen pointed in my face. “I’m Teddy. I’m here with a crew to move your belongings. It looks like you need assistance packing?”

I snarled at him. In the back of my mind, I knew he wasn’t the cause of my frustration, but I couldn’t help taking it out on him. “No, Teddy.” I snatched the pen out of his hand and started to look over the documents attached to the clipboard. “I do not need assistance packing. I want you and your crew out in the hall. I will let you know when I have finished packing and am ready for your assistance. Understood?”

He balked and flushed slightly. “Ma’am, that’s not really—”

“You’re getting paid by the hour right?” I interrupted.

“Yes,” he answered slowly, as though suspicious I was trying to trap him into something.

“Then go get lunch, coffee, whatever.”

“Mr. Diaz—”

“Isn’t here,” I finished. “You have his credit card number and will charge it at the end of the day for however many hours you were on the job. I’m not going to tell him if you went off to get a snack. Not my deal.”

He still didn’t look convinced.

I knew I had to pull a different card. “My boyfriend is on his way and he’ll give you a very generous tip if you follow my instructions, capiche?”

He nodded. I signed off the moving contract and he scuttled off with his buddies to go to the cafe around the corner. Tessa had barricaded herself in her room, so at least I didn’t have to worry about her calling Christopher. Not that I thought he’d care. In his eyes, he was winning. What did he care if it cost two or three hundred extra bucks if at the end he got what he wanted?

I found the stash of moving supplies the movers had dumped in the living room, and took a handful of collapsed boxes back to my room and starting packing. I was taping shut my third box when I heard the front door open and close.

“Livvie?”

“Over here!” I called out.

Remy appeared in the open doorway and gave me a stern face. “I told you not to leave the room.”

“I know, I know. You can lecture me later.”

He gave me a wicked grin. “Oh, I’ll do more than that.”

My entire body tingled with the surge of suggestive thoughts that went through my mind at his promise. Maybe living together wouldn’t be a bad thing after all…unlimited sexy talk and hot, naked Remy available whenever, wherever I wanted.

“Where’s Tessa?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Her room, I guess.

Remy surveyed the small room. “Was Christopher here?”

I shook my head and started packing again.

Remy grabbed a box and started filling it with clothing. “I guess I should have seen this coming.”

“How could you have known?”

“I should have figured he would try to do something to retaliate for what happened at his office.”

“About that, Remy—”

He held up a hand, obviously expecting some kind of ass-chewing.

I flashed a smile. “I was gonna say, nice right hook.”

Remy looked surprised by my comment but he laughed. “Thanks.”

We worked silently for awhile. He seemed to want to stay as quiet as possible to hear if Tessa or Christopher would pop in on us. I wasn’t sure what he was plotting in his mind, if that were to happen, but I was pretty sure it would land one—or both of us—in a lot of trouble. He was contained, but I could feel the anger radiating off of him as he worked alongside me.

“I didn’t even know he was still seeing her,” he said, almost to himself, as he taped one of the last boxes of clothing shut.

“What?”

“Well, to be honest, Tessa seems like the typical gold digger type. Which is perfect for Christopher.He loves a girl so blinded by dollar signs that she’ll do anything he wants. I thought Tessa was a fling for him, a plaything.”

I shook my head.Something didn’t fit into place. “Wait, you knew they were dating?” I asked.

Remy shrugged. “I saw them together at a charity thing. But, like I said, that meant nothing. For all I knew, it was a one and done kinda deal.”

I stopped packing and whirled to face him. “But you knew she was my roommate, and you knew he was working with me. Why wouldn’t you tell me something like that?”

“You weren’t exactly a receptive audience and if I was going to get you to listen to anything—I had other issues that topped that in terms of importance. All right?”

My lips thinned into a tight line. I was still irritated, but I knew I needed to drop it. After all that had happened today, Tessa’s gold digging was the last thing on my mind.

I finished boxing up my clothes and trinkets. Then, with Remy’s help, we went through the apartment, marking pieces with sticky notes that belonged to me. By the time Teddy and his crew returned, everything was ready. Remy slipped Teddy a few large bills and a piece of paper with his penthouse address, and told him where to go to park the truck when they arrived.

As soon as that was settled, he ushered me out of the apartment without so much as a glance back, and whisked me across town back to his place to wait for the moving crew.

“You know, this will work out well for me, because in another couple of months I’ll probably need help covering rent,” Remy joked.

I was standing at the kitchen island, running my fingers over the veins in the slab of granite, watching while he whipped up a couple of cappuccinos with his pricey espresso machine on the other side of the kitchen. I gave an over dramatic gaze around his gorgeous penthouse. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Remy laughed. “Come on, play along.”

I strutted towards him slowly, emphasizing the swivel of my hips. “But, Mr. Maddox, I don’t think I can get the rent to you on time this month. Is there any way we can make…arrangements?” I asked, dropping to my knees in front of him.

“Shit, Liv!” Remy gasped. I smiled up at him. I loved the moments when I could catch him off guard.

“You told me to play along,” I replied, letting my fingers run over his noticeable bulge.

“Right. Well, Miss. Sanders, I’m sure we can—” His voice broke away as I nuzzled my cheek against his hard cock. He stopped trying to speak and instead, channeled his energy into unbuckling his jeans as fast as I’d ever seen someone undress.

His perfect cock sprung free of his boxer briefs and I wasted no time, sliding the entire shaft into my mouth, letting the tip go hit the back of my throat. I moaned, and Remy gasped and took a firm grip on my ponytail. I kept my cheeks tight as Remy took control. He thrust into my mouth as far as he could and tugged on my ponytail to make me bob over his cock at the speed he wanted. Each tug of my ponytail got me wetter and wetter. I knew how much Remy wanted me, and felt him throbbing more and more with each pulse. I swirled my tongue up and down the shaft and he groaned.

“Suck my cock! Yes, like that,” he demanded, his voice gravely and slightly breathless.

I sucked harder and his tugging on my hair got harsher. I winced at the slight pain with each yank but didn’t dare tell him to slow down or ease up. He was getting tight and swollen inside my mouth, and I knew he was close to the edge and I wanted to get him there.

Remy thrust in so deep he hit the back of my throat and I let out a moan to accommodate his thick shaft. “Take it like that.”

I nodded and he groaned again, digging his fingertips into my head and holding onto me as he thrust a few more times and then came inside my mouth, his warm seed filling my mouth and dripping down my throat. I swallowed it all and tongued it off his skin as he pulled out of me.

“Damn, Livvie.”

I smiled, loving the sight of him breathless and undone. “So, what do you think? We square for next month’s rent?” I teased.

He gave me a wicked smile before launching himself at me. In one swoop, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

“I’m afraid we have to continue negotiations,” he replied, smacking my ass in the process.

I laughed and squealed as he started down the hall towards the bedroom.

***

“So, what’s new?” I asked, settling into a chair across Kaylee and Mitch at our regular table in the twenty-four hour coffee shop. It had been a couple of weeks since I’d moved in with Remy, and while co-habitation had been going well, I was afraid I was slacking off in regards to the business. I had called an emergency staff meeting to get things back on track.

But from the looks on their faces, I had a sinking feeling that it might be a little too late. Mitch looked down at the table and Kaylee looked like she was about to cry.

“Shit,” I whispered. “What happened?”

Mitch was the first to speak. “We lost the other two bands.”

“Ugh. When?” I asked, burying my face in my hands.

“They both emailed within a couple hours of each other, late last night. Kaylee and I just saw the emails this morning.”

“Great.” I’d been off in la-la land with Remy—meanwhile, my entire business had been crumbling to the ground.

I blew out a long, slow puff of air. “It’s okay. We will bounce back. Remy’s looking at office spaces right now. I have a huge list of club contacts to call. I know Christopher is going to try and trash talk me all over town, but even if I can get twenty-five percent of them to have a meeting with me, I think I could make some of my own connections, and with that in place, attracting new bands should be cake. So, maybe this is a good thing?”

My two employees exchanged a dark look.

“What?”

Kaylee cleared her throat. “Well, the two bands that left, they both mentioned that they were going to Vantage Point Management.”

“Management? You mean Beats. The record label that belongs to the devil—”

“—No. Livvie, he has a management branch. So, now he is doing recording and management in-house. You didn’t know that?”

“Shit.” My heart started palpitating in my chest. I looked down at my empty coffee mug and realized it was my fourth cup of the day. Probably a good sign that it was time to switch to wine. Hey, it was five o’clock somewhere, right?