This time, when I woke up next to him, I didn’t leave. After playing with his body until late in the night, I’d slept soundly next to him, curled around his body like I’d spent countless nights with him. He had one arm thrown around me, and he actually looked peaceful as he slept.
I moved my fingers softly through his hair and tried to figure out what I was doing. I had just agreed to a casual sexual relationship. It felt a little empowering to take control of my sexuality.
“You look a little too pensive this morning,” he murmured as he stirred and stared at me.
“I thought you were asleep,” I said with a smile. Rather than pulling away from me, he held me closer to his body.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
Turning in his arms, I pressed my hand against his naked chest. He looked damn good in the morning. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I looked a hot mess. “I was thinking about our agreement.”
“Planning on backing out of it now that you’re happily satiated?”
I saw the question in his eyes and smiled. “No. I was just thinking that it feels kind of freeing.”
“Oh really?” His hand reached down to stroke my naked nipple. My body responded to him immediately. “What do you want to do next?”
I knew what he was asking, but I wasn’t quite ready to voice any of my fantasies. “I want to get ready for class so I’m not late.”
He groaned in frustration as I reluctantly pulled out of his grasp. “You’re supposed to be at my disposal. What if I say that I want you to spend the day in bed with me?”
Chuckling, I reached for my clothes. “I’ll remind you that you have a multi-million-dollar company to run. You probably don’t have time to spend a weekday in bed.”
“That’s true. You’ll come to my bed tonight?”
Tonight? I so desperately needed to work on my thesis tonight. “I’ll try. I’ve got some research to do, but I’ll come afterwards.”
“You’ll be at the library?”
I nodded as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. His eyes never left me as I pulled my frizzy hair back into a pony-tail. “You keep spending mornings with me, and you’ll stop wanting me in your bed.”
He whispered something so softly, that I wasn’t even sure I heard him correctly.
That’s the idea. Is what it sounded like.
Turning sharply, I stared at him. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing.”
Taking a deep breath, I turned back to the mirror. He was staring at me, but there wasn’t any guilt in his face. Even if he was trying to tire himself of me, it didn’t matter. I hadn’t questioned his motivations before I made the agreement, and I had no reason to question them now. “I have to go if I’m going to grab some coffee and breakfast before my first class,” I murmured as I turned from him. “If you could sneak out without Randi seeing you, that would probably be best.”
He slowly stood. As the blankets fell away, I couldn’t help but stare. Lucas Montgomery was magnificent. He looked even better in my bedroom. “Are you ashamed of me?”
Snorting, I rolled my eyes. “I doubt anyone would be ashamed of you. I just don’t want her drooling all over you. Would you please put some clothes on?”
Moving up behind me, he wrapped his arms around me and met my eyes in the reflection. “Does my nakedness bother you?” he asked huskily.
“Oh no you don’t!” I danced out of his reach and shook my head as I grabbed my bag. “I am off to class, and you will quit trying to distract me.” I took one last second to drink him in before I slipped out and closed the door behind me.
“There you are!”
I whirled around and stared as Randi stumbled in. Dragging a hand through her hair, she gave me a tired look. She still wore the same pink halter and jeans from yesterday.
I stifled a smirk. “Walk of shame?”
“Why is there no coffee in the pot? There is always coffee in the pot,” she moaned. “Did you sleep in? Why did you sleep in? Sloan, I need coffee.”
“I did sleep in,” I said as I slowly moved from the door. Praying that Lucas would keep quiet and sneak out without Randi knowing, I tried to gracefully leave.
“What did you do last night?” she asked as she cleared her throat. “Christ, I need a shower.”
“Just worked on my paper. I am super late, and yes, you really do need a shower. You should take a nice long hot one,” I said loudly, hoping Lucas would get the hint.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she muttered as she shuffled down the hall. Glancing at the clock, I gritted my teeth.
I was going to be so late.
It was a fact that my professor didn’t let slip. When I finally arrived at class, he stopped the lecture and turned to stare at me as I tried to slip unnoticed into class. “Ms. Whitlow, so happy that you could join us,” Dr. Elliot said dryly.
“Sorry professor,” I said as I ducked my head. Every head in the class turned.
“Would you like to tell us what caused you to miss over half the class today?”
I thought about telling him I was wrapped in the arms of a gorgeous man. But I just smiled briefly. “Alarm clock didn’t go off.” Quickly sliding into the nearest empty seat, I pulled out my notebook and tried to focus. As Dr. Elliot continued to lecture, I tried desperately to focus. By the time class was over, I realized that I hadn’t heard a single word.
“Ms. Whitlow. Do you have a minute?” Dr. Elliot called out as I packed my bag at the end of class.
“Of course,” I said with a tight smile. At least he was waiting for the rest of class to leave before he raked me over the coals for my tardiness. Mentally cursing Lucas and all his temptations, I slowly made my way down to him. “Dr. Elliot, I am sorry I was late.”
“Ms. Whitlow,” he said as he held up his hand and smile. “You’re almost never late, so don't think anything of it. I reviewed the information you emailed me last weekend, and although it’s very late in the game, I think, my dear, you finally have your thesis statement.”
My eyes widened, and I grinned. Over the weekend, I had emailed him the information I gathered from the charity in the hopes that I could include the information in my paper. The need for a summer schedule for students that included both education and pleasure that also taught the kids responsibility and charity. “I can make it work, Dr. Elliot. I know I can.”
“You’re weeks behind. You’ll still have to find a group of subjects to participate and get in touch with the charities to come up with a lesson plan before the end of the semester. You have a lot of work to prepare for,” he said warningly.
I nodded eagerly. “I will. I’ll get started right away!”
He waved his hand to dismiss me, and I gripped my bag and raced to the library. If I skipped lunch, I had a solid four hours to work before my next class. After that, I could work all night.
Sleep was overrated.
It wasn’t until the sun had set and I’d spent hours in the library that my phone vibrated. Frowning, I picked it up and glanced at it.
Your class let out hours ago. Where the hell are you?
My heart sank. I had completely forgotten that I’d told Lucas that I’d try to meet him.
I’m so sorry. I got caught up in researching at the library. I’m going to have to take a rain check.
He texted back almost immediately.
So we make an agreement, and you break it the first chance you get?
What was the big deal? It was one night, and he knew how important my thesis was to me. I said I was sorry. I’ll make it up to you.
He didn’t text back, and I tried to sink back into my work. I couldn’t help but glance at my phone every now and then to see if I had missed his text.
I didn’t.
The library didn’t close until two in the morning, so I quickly lost track of time. It wasn’t until a shadow passed over me that I looked back up again.
Lucas stood over me, and there was nothing but cold anger in his face.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed in a low voice. Looking around, my heart sank when I saw that the library still had a handful of people in it. “How did you even get in here? It’s supposed to be student IDs only.”
“I have money, Sloan. You’ll find that gets me just about anywhere.” He sat down and stared at me expectantly.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here.”
“I wanted to see you. We had plans, remember?”
I glanced at my watch. It was nearly midnight. “Lucas, I’m sorry that I forgot, but you can’t just sit here and stare at me while I work.”
“Why not? I don’t stand people up,” he said loudly.
Rolling my eyes, I gritted my teeth. “Lower your voice,” I snapped. “People are here to study. Are you going to be an idiot every time something like this comes up?”
“Do you expect to stand me up often? If you had called me and told me that you needed to work, I’d be much happier. Instead, you forgot. I don’t like being forgotten,” he said casually. He did lower his voice, but not by much.
“For fuck’s sake,” I growled and slammed my book shut. There was no way I was going to get work done now. Shoving my books inside my bag, I stormed out. Predictably, he followed.
Once outside, I whirled on him. “Is this what’s going to happen every time I piss you off? You’re going to stalk me on campus and embarrass me in front of my peers? I have put a lot of money and effort into my education, and this thesis is going to get me a career! A career that I am working damn hard for. I’m sorry that our plans slipped my mind, but I am weeks behind everyone else, so researching and writing thesis is my main priority. And if your ego can’t take that, then you might as well find some other woman to be your stupid fuck buddy.”
I turned to continue down the stairs, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. “Do not walk away from me, Sloan,” he said in a low voice.
“Let go of me.” Fury fueled me as I turned around to stare at him. “Let go of me, now.”
His anger matched mine, but he relented and released me. I shook my head as I stared at him. “Do you always throw such a temper tantrum when things don’t go your way? How does anybody stand to be near you?”
His face fell, and I worried if my words were too harsh. “Sloan,” he said in a low voice.
“It was one mistake, Lucas. I know that I should have said that to you, and I know that you don’t love that I forgot, but I can’t guarantee that it’s not going to happen in the future. You have the right to be upset, but if you got caught up in a meeting, I wouldn’t storm into your office and throw a fit.” Taking a deep breath, I turned my back on him and moved slowly into the darkness. When he followed behind me, I stopped.
“I’m just making sure that you get to your car safely,” he muttered tersely. “I’m sure campus security is not up to my standards.”
Controlling bastard. Too tired to argue with him anymore, I let him follow me back to my car. I didn’t make eye contact or say anything to him as I slid in the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.
I still felt his eyes on me as I started my car and drove away.
A measly twenty-four hours later, and we’d blown it. Lucas Montgomery wasn’t the type of person who forgave mistakes, and I wasn’t the kind of woman who could be pushed around.
Despite my convictions, I couldn’t help but feel the tears prick my eyes. We were over.
Chapter 6
Lucas
I rocked back and forth in my chair and stared dumbly at Torrence. He kept talking, but I didn’t hear a word.
I had seen Sloan annoyed at me. Frustrated. Pissed. But this was the first time I’d ever seen her truly angry.
It was irritating. She stood me up. What right did she have to be mad at me?
“Are you listening to anything I’m telling you?” Torrence snapped.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I yawned. “I’m tried, Drew,” I muttered.
“For you to call me Drew, you must be tired. I don’t suppose you had Ms. Whitlow in your bed last night?” he asked dryly.
Cocking my head, I stared at him. “Actually, I did not. She’s quite angry with me. She think’s I’m controlling.”
Torrence snorted. “That should not be news to you. You are a controlling bastard.”
“She said I threw a hissy fit.”
“I think I might actually like her,” my friend said with a smirk. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I growled. “She stood me up, and I just went to find her!”
He stared at me. “Seriously? You stalked her because she stood you up? That’s a little over the top.”
“Shut-up. Why are you here?”
“I’m trying to give you a report of my findings. I’ve done a pretty thorough financial background report of nearly a third of the staff, but, while there are some kinky people working for you, I haven’t found any strange activity that indicates any payoffs.”
“Damn.” I rubbed a hand over my face and closed my eyes. Last night, I didn’t leave campus right away. I’d walked around a little bit and tried to remember my own time at college.
It was brief. Only two years. I’d only gone because my father demanded it, but college never suited me. I wasn’t the partying type. I was raised to be disciplined and in control, but college was full of temptations. My father was furious when I dropped out, but he was dead less than a year later. I wouldn’t have finished college anyway. It was strange to me that it would be so important to her.
More important to her than me.
It was a ridiculous thought. She worked hard for her education. I liked her because of that. She wasn’t a vapid individual that let her whole life fall to the wayside because a man showed her interest. She had a goal in life that was more than just having a good time. She had substance, and I adored her for it.
Until, apparently, it got in the way of what I wanted.
Damn it, I was a controlling bastard.
“Montgomery! I swear, if I’m just wasting my breath, at least let me know so I can grab a cup of coffee while you put yourself together.”
“I’m listening,” I growled. “I can sum it up in one sentence. You haven’t found the traitor. How is that helpful to me?”
Torrence shook his head and stood up. “You’re a damn ass today. Apparently someone telling you the truth really pisses you off. So she thinks you’re controlling. Montgomery, you are controlling. That’s not a horrible thing. You’ve built an empire on discipline. Don’t beat yourself up over it. If she upset you, find another woman.”
I didn’t want another woman. I wanted Sloan. And even more strange, I wanted Sloan to like me.
The revelation startled me. I normally wanted women to lust after me, and that was never a problem. Sloan definitely lusted after me. Her body responded to every touch. Every word. But I never cared if women liked me before.
“How long will it take you to finish your search?” I asked finally.
“At least another week,” he sighed. “Maybe longer. I know you have a board meeting tomorrow. I think you should postpone it.”
“If I postpone it, I’ll have to give them a reason why. Just because we don’t think it’s a board member doesn’t mean it’s not. I have to pretend everything is normal.”
“The traitor knows you found their bug. It’s not like you have to hide from them,” Torrence pointed out.
“But if I take too many precautions, they might do something more drastic. As long as we sweep for bugs before the meeting, it should be fine. If any information leaks, then we’ll know it’s a board member. I’ll just have to be careful about the information I share,” I said finally as I turned to stare out the window.
“Montgomery, I’ve looked at the financials of the board members. If one of them is the mole, they’re doing it for personal reasons. Have you done anything to piss them off lately?”
“They’ve invested money in me, but it doesn’t mean that I listen to every word they say. I run this company as I see fit, and that doesn’t always sit well with them. But I can’t think of anything that I’ve done lately,” I muttered. Hamburg brought the traitor to my attention, but that didn’t immediately exclude him. Addison had been in a generous mood since her birthday, but I had a feeling that had more to do with the lover she kept on the side than with me. Holmes kept to himself, and Jenson was young and pompous, but his seat on the board gave him status. He wouldn’t jeopardize that just because he was angry with me.
“I’ll watch what I say in the meeting, Torrence. Don’t worry. Even if the company crumbles at my feet, I have enough money in the reserve to keep you employed,” I said dryly.
“Idiot,” Torrence muttered. “I don’t even know why I try to be your friend. You should take this more seriously.”
“Trust me, I take it very seriously.” And personally. Someone was trying to take me down. I took that very personally. “Keep up the search. Let me know what you find.”
Torrence nodded and opened the door. “Iris?” he asked in a surprised voice.
Iris? I whirled around to see the gorgeous blonde standing in the door with a smirk on her face. “Hello, Drew. It’s been awhile,” she said, but her eyes were on me.
“I thought you were in Europe.”
“I was. I just got back. How have you been?”
Torrence looked uneasily over her shoulder at me. Iris and I had a brief relationship, but although it lasted only a few months, it was much longer than any other woman had held my interest. I was happy with our arrangement, but she had left suddenly for Europe and never said a word. Just disappeared one day. It wasn’t until I started snooping around that I realized she’d left the country. I never contacted her, and she’d never contacted me. “I’m fine. It’s good to see you.”
He slipped past her, and Iris looked at me expectantly. “Well? Can I come in?”
Warily, I nodded. Iris was always calculating. Her return was not without reason. “What can I do for you?”
“So formal,” she chuckled as she walked in. I was relieved to see that she left the door open. “I thought you’d be happier to see me.”
“You didn’t exactly say goodbye before you left.”
She sat on the couch and crossed her legs. Her short blue dress rode high along her thigh, and she lounged seductively. “We both know it didn’t bother you, so there’s no need to pretend it did. I warmed your bed at night, and that’s all you needed. Or were you just upset because I left you before you could leave me?”
Iris had a point. I walked around the desk and leaned against it. “What can I do for you, Iris?”
“Nothing professionally. I’m back in town, and I thought you might have some free time.”
Her meaning was clear, but I wasn’t interested. “I’m sorry Iris. I’ve got a lot going on right now.”
“I’ve been in town for a while, Lucas. I’ve heard rumors that you’re showing quite a bit of interest in a pretty young thing. A student. Now why would you have interest in a student? You normally like more powerful women. Experienced women.”
Stiffening, I felt a sudden urge to defend Sloan. Protect her. “So you’re jealous?”
“Not jealous. Just curious.” She trailed a finger up her thigh.
Cocking my head, I stared at her. “Just how long have you been back, Iris?”
“About a month. Long enough to hear about the kidnapping attempt. Long enough to know how publicly distraught you were when the girl disappeared. Long enough to hear about your daring rescue.”
And long enough to plant a bug in my company. “A month, and you didn’t reach out to me before?” I asked casually. “What exactly was your business in Europe? Pleasure?”
Iris was the daughter of a wealthy oil tycoon. Although she didn’t need to do anything with her life, she had a head for business, and her father frequently asked her for advice. She wasn’t some naive woman. She was a strategist, and if she thought she could use me to further her rise in the business community, I had no doubt that she would do it.
“I spent some time on the topless beaches of France. Lounging in the cafe’s of Italy. Flirting with the handsome men of Greece. It was a nice vacation. You should have joined me,” she said with a coy smile.
“You should have invited me.” My voice was cold. There was no way she spent months vacationing in Europe. Iris got bored if she had nothing to do for an hour. Weeks of lounging would have driven her insane.
She stood and walked towards me, swaying her hips. Iris was a natural beauty. Curves in all the right places. Gorgeous even without a stitch of make-up. Tall and leggy. She knew she was captivating, and she utilized it like a weapon. “If you missed me, Lucas, I’d be more than happy to make it up to you.”
She tried to reach for me, but I clasped her wrists before she could touch me. “If I were you, I’d be very clear about your intentions, Iris. Your true intentions. I’m a busy man, and I don’t like games.”
The smile slipped from her face, but before she could say anything, someone cleared their throat. Looking up sharply, I saw Sloan staring at me from the doorway. Her face was a mixture of anger and jealousy.
“Sloan,” I said in a controlled voice. “This is Iris Norwood.”
I tried to stay as calm as possible. Iris would, without a doubt, try and rile Sloan, and our relationship was too fragile for that. I pushed Iris slightly back before releasing her hoping that she would take the hint and move back even more.
She didn’t.
Sloan walked in slowly. Her eyes locked with Iris’s. “Norwood? The oil company?”
“Yes. Who are you? Lucas and I were discussing something quite intimate before you interrupted us,” Iris said with a mocking smile.
Damn it. “And our conversation is over,” I quickly intervened. “Iris, you don’t need to come back.”
She looked sharply at me, and there was surprise in her eyes. Whatever she thought of my relationship with Sloan, she clearly didn’t think it would trump my relationship with her.
“Fine,” she said stiffly. She cast another look at me before sweeping past Sloan.
“Sloan, what are you doing here?” I asked softly.
“You came to my campus. I thought that it was only fair if I came to your work,” she said as her head turned to stare at the door.
Great. She was still angry. “Sloan, this isn’t a good time. You also distinctly pointed out last night that storming my office wasn’t something that you would do.”
“I didn’t storm,” Sloan muttered. “I would have waited patiently with your secretary, but your door was open.”
I clenched my jaw and took a deep breath. There was nothing in her body language to indicate why she was here. “Could we speak later? I’m a little busy right now.”
As soon as her eyes met mine, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. There wasn’t fury or anger in them but suspicion. She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “I’m sorry. I definitely didn’t come here realizing that I was going to interrupt you and the gorgeous woman that used to decorate your arm and your bed.”
Fuck.
Chapter 7
Sloan
“Shut the door,” he said in a low voice. He moved around the desk and sat in his chair. The new distance between us didn’t make me feel any better.
I did as he asked, but I had a feeling that I was quickly losing control of the situation. I had just walked in on him touching another woman. It wasn’t in a sexual manner, but I could see the intentions in her face, the disgust in her face when she walked past me.
“Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here before one of us says something we regret?” he asked softly.
The door shut with a soft click, and I turned to face him. My heart was racing. “I came to apologize.”
“Really?”
“Yes, so imagine my surprise when I find you in the office with your ex-girlfriend,” I hissed. There was no way I was just going to let that pass.
“I told you that I wouldn’t fuck anyone else,” he said darkly as he stared at me. “I haven’t. Why don’t you trust me?”
I didn’t break eye-contact. “It did occur to me that you were under the impression that I broke our agreement last night.”
“If that were true, I could fuck whomever I wanted.”
Pain sliced through me, and my eyes widened. I couldn’t say anything in response to that.
“She showed up unannounced at my office. I had no intentions of doing anything with her. When our agreement is over, you’ll know.”
His controlled fury sent shivers down my spine. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “You’ve just been with so many women, and she’s so pretty.”
“Come here.”
His voice left no room for argument. I slowly moved from the wall and shuffled to him. My heart hammered against my chest. I had no idea that he could be so angry.
I stopped in front of his desk, and he shook his head. “No. Come here.”
Shit. Swallowing hard, I moved around the desk and stood in front of him. I wasn’t scared of him. Deep down, I knew that he’d never physically hurt me. I wouldn’t be here if I thought that was the case, but I still had no idea what he was going to do.
His hands moved to the button of my pants, and my eyes widened. “Lucas,” I hissed and tried to swipe his hands away. “We’re in your office!”
“My office. My business. My building. My rules,” he snapped. “You’re free to walk out, but if you stay, you’re going to listen to me.”
“Listening doesn’t usually require the removal of my pants,” I whispered, but I didn’t stop him again. There was something thrilling about fucking him here. I’d tentatively asked Victor if he ever wanted to fuck me in the car, but he’d always brushed me off. It turned out that he was fucking other women in his car, but that wasn’t the point. This was my chance to do something really daring.
But he was just so angry.
Reaching back, I gripped the edge of the desk behind me, and he slowly unzipped my pants and pulled them down. Underneath, I wore a flimsy piece of lavender lace that dared called themselves panties. I’d gotten in the habit of wearing sexy underwear whenever I thought I might see him.
“She is beautiful,” he muttered, but he never took his eyes off my pussy. Gripping my hips, he lifted me easily on the desk and rolled his chair between my legs. “And I’ve had her.”
Damn it. I didn’t want to hear about him and other women. “You don’t have to explain.”
“Oh, I know I don’t,” he said as his eyes met mine. His finger trailed up my inner thighs, and I hissed and curled my toes. “I don’t have to explain a damn thing to you, but you should trust me. When I tell you that I won’t be with anyone when I’m with you, then you need to trust that. When this is done, Sloan, you’ll know.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Not okay.” He pulled the scrap of fabric to the side and shoved a long finger inside me. It took me be by surprise, and I fell back. Catching myself on my elbows, I accidentally shoved papers off the desk. Neither of us even paid attention as they hit the floor. I gasped as pain mixed with pleasure.
“Lucas?” I asked uncertainly.
He stood suddenly and leaned over me to kiss me hard. Pushing a second finger inside me, he started sliding them in and out. “This isn’t what I do, Sloan. I don’t just be with one woman. I take whomever I want home at night without a second thought. I’m putting in the effort to hold my end of the bargain. The least you could do is trust me.”
The tension built inside me, but I tried to ignore it. “Lucas, I’m sorry.”
His thumb pressed against my clit, and I fell all the way back and planted my heels against his desk as I bucked against his hand. He kept talking. “You knew of my past before we agreed to this. I can’t change any of that. You’re going to have to be okay with that.”
If he wanted me to respond, he was going to be disappointed. I could barely moan as he continued the assault on my body. Hard and fast. Slow and easy. His fingers were driving me wild.
When I felt his hot breath blowing on me, his tongue sliding across me, sinking inside me, flicking my sensitive clit, I lost it. Distantly, I hear the clatter of something heavy hitting the floor as I searched for something to hold on to, to anchor me while my orgasm threatened to fling my body into oblivion.
He never let go of me. When it was finally over, he slowly pulled my limp body off the desk and into his lap as he sat back down. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into his shoulder.
Gently, he kissed the top of my head. “I think I kind of like your jealousy,” he said. I heard the smile in his voice. “But if you’re not careful, it’ll push us to the breaking point. I’m enjoying you, Sloan. I’m not quite ready to let that go just yet.”
Neither was I. Of course, the difference was that eventually, he would be ready to move on.
And I might never get to that point.
“How did you know that Iris was my ex?”
“I Googled you,” I muttered as embarrassment stained my cheeks. “There are quite a few pictures of you with women on your arm.”
“Don’t do that, Sloan. If you can’t be at peace with my past, then you need to tell me now. And if you can, then you can’t dig up old bones.”
Wordlessly, I nodded. He was right, of course. The only thing that would do was upset me. “I should go.”
I tried to get up, but he didn’t move his arms. “I owe you an apology for last night. You’re not wrong. I am used to controlling the environment around me, and I have a short temper. In the future, I will try to be more understanding of your other obligations.”
Smiling, I turned my head to stare at him. “Lucas. I never expected you to be a man who apologizes easily.”
“I’m not. Now go on. I’ll see you tonight.”
I stood from his lap and felt a little empty without his arms around me. “I can’t. I have several meetings tomorrow at the local school so I can pull together a group of kids for my thesis. I have to work on my notes.”
For a moment, I thought he’d be upset, but he just smiled. “Tomorrow night then?”
“Yes. And I promise that I won’t forget.” Leaning down, I gave him a quick peck on the lips. It wasn’t a kiss of desire but something that felt habitual. Lucas looked at me with surprise in his eyes, but I quickly dressed and scampered out of the office before he could ask any questions.
The secretary gave me a knowing smile, and I flushed even more. God. Had she heard us?
“Do you need an escort out?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” I muttered. “I’ll be just fine.”
I knew that I’d told Lucas that I was willing to explore my sexual side, but after an orgasm in his office, I was starting to wonder if I was in over my head.
The next day, I sat in the hard plastic seat in front of the Vice Principal’s desk. I’d managed to control my frizzy curls into a hair band and wore a conservative grey skirt and jacket. I was well prepared, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like a student who’d just gotten caught smoking.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Ms. Whitlow,” a woman said sternly as she entered the office. Torie Garret looked to be in her forties, but her hair was greying, and there were lines on her face. I would have thought running an elementary school would have been easier, but after today? After my third elementary school?
Maybe not so much. Children were terrors.
“I haven’t been here long, Mrs. Garret. I’m just happy that you’ve found time for me. I know I’m giving you short notice.”
She sat behind the desk and nodded her head. “You are late in your proposal, but you’re also the first grad student we’ve had this year. Normally I listen to one or two proposals a semester, but Clancy Elementary is new and seems to be attractive to the university.” What she didn’t want to come out and say was that Clancy Elementary had been strategically zoned so that more than three-quarters of the students came from extremely wealthy families.
I didn’t want to tell her that I’d just left Clancy Elementary. They’d turned me down. It wasn’t that I needed wealthy kids to make my project work. In fact, the less spoiled the kids were, the better my outcome might be. Clancy just happened to be a ten minute drive from school, and Surry Elementary was thirty minutes.
But the principal had practically laughed in my face when I suggest their kids participate in summer volunteer work.
Sliding my proposal across the desk, I took a deep breath. “Middle schools and high schools offer summer school for their students. It’s generally for kids to retake classes they’d failed during the regular year, but some classes are optional, and it affords a chance for students to keep their minds sharp and their hands busy during the long summer months. Elementary schools, on the other hand, don’t offer anything for their students. Most parents turn to babysitters to watch their kids during the break, and there is a sprinkling of day camps in the area, but not many.”
The woman looked at me sternly from over the proposal. “You want the elementary schools to offer summer programs?”
“My paper will focus on the pros and cons of such a project. I’m looking at businesses that can offer the kids some hands on experience that would be fun but still provide them some education. For the sake of my paper, I’m focusing mainly on animal rescue programs, but I’m going to hypothesize the use of nursing homes, libraries, soup kitchens, and similar charities in the area. I need sixteen students. I’m sure you know the drill. Different ages, different stages in learning, different economic backgrounds.”
She put the paper down and nodded her head. “Ms. Whitlow, I think it’s a wonderful idea. I’ve always thought the school system should be more involved in the student’s life during the summer. I’m sure that you know we pull from some of the poorer families, and many of the kids are left to their own devices while the parent works. I’ll go ahead and sign the paperwork for your thesis approval. Once you have everything in order, we’ll send out the permission slips to the parents.”
My eyes widened with excitement. “Really?”
“Ms. Whitlow, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were surprised,” she said wryly.
Biting my lower lip, I nodded my head. “I know how late it is in the semester and how complex my program is. It’s not a simple reading exercise that would only take a week or two.”
“Yes, well while that might be helpful in the future, this is something that will help these kids right now. You should be very proud of yourself, Ms. Whitlow. I only hope that your program is as good as I hope.”
“It will be,” I promised as I stood. She scribbled her signature at the end of the paperwork and handed it back to me. “You’d better hurry if you want this in place before the summer break, Ms. Whitlow. You only have two months.”
Eagerly gripping the papers to my chest, I tried to act professional, but I was practically bursting with excitement. From her smile, I knew that I wasn’t fooling her, but she dismissed me with a wave of her hand. I thanked her once more before skipping from her office before she changed her mind.
Lucas Montgomery warmed my bed at night and my thesis was well on its way.
The week was getting better and better.
Chapter 8
Sloan
Wrapped in his arms, I leaned against him on the couch and snuggled. “What movie did you want to watch?” I murmured.
Lucas kissed the top of my head. “I wanted to enjoy a steak from a five-star restaurant. Staying in to order pizza and watch a movie was your idea,” he reminded me.
“Five-star restaurants require makeup and dressy clothes. Randi is going to be suspicious if I keep raiding her closet, and I’m too tired to try my hand at contouring and smoky eyes.”
He snorted. “I’ve seen you all dressed up. I doubt you spent more than five minutes on your makeup.”
Lifting my head, I stared at him. “Does that bother you?”
“Why would it?”
“Reporters are always taking pictures of you. Imagine the rumors if the woman at your dinner table wasn’t wearing the latest styles or newest makeup trend.”
He leaned down and kissed me. Slow and easy. My toes curled, and something warm and comfortable settled in my stomach. “Sloan, I have never given a damn about the reporters. Neither should you.”
Leaning over me, he grabbed the remote for the television and turned it on. “I guess you’ll want to watch a romantic comedy?”
Looking horrified, I stared at him. “Are you kidding me? Your television is huge, and you have surround sound. I want to see explosions or awesome special effects.”
“You are surprising,” he murmured as he pulled the list of movies up. I chose one that I’d seen a hundred times. I wasn’t here to see a movie or eat pizza. I was here to enjoy his company. It was amazing when his naked body was wrapped around me, but I wanted to be with him without the dirty, dirty sex.
It was dangerous. Pretending to be his girlfriend was definitely playing with fire, but he didn’t seem to mind, and I was feeling daring. Things were going well.
“I haven’t asked you yet. How is the search for the mole going?”
His body tensed undermind, and I wondered if that was a subject best left untouched. “Not well. There are a lot of suspects and no clear motives.”
Picking up a slice of pizza, he held it up to me until I took a bite of its gooey cheesy goodness before taking a bite himself. “I can’t remember the last time I had pizza.”
I snorted. “Really? I have pizza at least twice a week. The pizza place is the only thing around campus open past ten. I’ll probably be ten pounds fatter by the time I graduate. Would you still want me then?”
The thoughtless words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Of course Lucas and I wouldn’t still be together by the time I graduated. That would be more than six months from now. I wasn’t even sure I could keep his attentions for the next two weeks.
“You’d have to eat an awful lot of pizza between now and then to gain ten pounds,” he said in a neutral voice.
Diplomatic. Part of me desperately wanted to ask him how long he thought he’d be interested in me, but I knew it was dangerous territory.
“Well, I’m glad I could remind you of the common life. Tomorrow night, I’ll fix you a bowl of ramen.”
He wrinkled his nose, and I laughed. “No? How about grilled cheese?”
“I offer to take you to the nicest restaurants, and you offer to make me ramen and grilled cheese. How is that fair?”
I stole another bite of his pizza and smiled. “I had no idea that our agreement was based on fairness.”
He stared at me and ran his hands down my body. Even though there was lust in his eyes, I could have sworn there was something else. “No, it’s not.” His voice was husky when he leaned down and kissed me. Setting the slice down on the plate, he moved his hand up under my shirt, and soon the movie and the pizza were forgotten.
Randi was waiting for me when I snuck back into the apartment just after dawn. I would have left for class directly from the Montgomery estates, but I’d forgotten my books. Lucas was up before the sun and doing push-ups in the bedroom.
Otherwise, I would have been back sooner, but there was something incredibly sexy about watching him exercise naked.
I was impressed with how many sit-ups he could do while I was straddling him.
“I got in an hour ago,” Randi accused. “Imagine my surprise when your bed was still made. I know damn well that you were not at the library, so you might as well tell me the truth.”
I could still smell Lucas on me. “I thought you’d be happy that I was having some fun.”
“Of course I am. I’m worried that you’re not telling me about it. Sloan, be honest with me. Are you still sleeping with Montgomery?”
She crossed her arms and stared at me. Taking a deep breath, I let the bag slip from my shoulders. “Would it really be so bad if I was?”
“If it was anyone but you, I would say no. Sloan, he’s going to hurt you.”
Jutting my chin out defiantly, I glared at her. “Randi, I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. Lucas and I have an agreement that’s purely sexual. It’s been a great way for me to release my tension. I think I’m quite good at this casual sex thing.”
“And what’s his interest in you?” She immediately closed her eyes and shook her head. “Shit, Sloan. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know exactly what you meant,” I growled as I grabbed my bag. “You think I’m not pretty enough or exotic enough to catch the attention of Lucas. Why don’t you just admit it? Are you jealous?”
“Sloan, you know damn well that’s not what’s going on here. Yes, Lucas can have his pick of women. He likes them powerful. He’s just playing with you, Sloan. As much as you might hate to admit it, you’re not the kind of woman who fucks a man at night and forgets them the next morning. He’s not the man who settles down with someone. You know that I’m right, but you’re ignoring it. If you get lost in whatever fantasy keeps playing in your head, you’re going to get hurt.”
I felt nothing but cold anger as I stared at her. God, I knew she was right, but this was something I had to prove to myself. “That’s my problem and not yours. Next time, mind your own damn business.”
She gasped, but I was already halfway to my room. Slamming the door shut, I leaned against it and tried not to cry. Deep down, I did want her to find out. I wanted someone to talk to, but it was obvious that Randi was not going to support me.
We’d never fought. At least not like that. We’d argued over music and noise levels. I sometimes lost my patience with her when she forgot to clean the dishes, and she’d snap at me when I forgot the groceries. But this was different.
This had actually hurt.
The shower started, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get the chance to bathe before class. The scent of Lucas and sex would follow me around all day.
I wasn’t exactly upset about that.
Stuffing the books in my bag, I tried to put the argument behind me as I grabbed a blueberry muffin from the kitchen and shoved it in my mouth. Opening the door, I walked straight into Matthew.
Matthew Rehn was my odd neighbor. He was handsome, but he worked odd hours and never spoke much. Randi and I had talked endlessly about our theories about him.
At best, he was a secret CIA agent. At worse, he was a serial killer.
But he was always nice to us, so we didn’t bother him much. I couldn’t hide the surprise from my face when I saw him.
“Matthew!”
The muffin was still in my mouth and muffled the sound. He lifted an eyebrow and smiled at me. “I’ve caught you at a bad time.”
Pulling the muffin out of my mouth, I swallowed. “I’m sorry. I do know not to talk with my mouth full. I was just on my way to school.”
“Right.” He handed me an envelope. “This was at my door last night. I tried to deliver it then, but neither you or your roommate were home. It’s addressed to you, but there’s no postage on it. Were you expecting something?”
I shoved the muffin back in my mouth and shook my head as I took the envelope. I could have put down my keys, but that didn’t occur to me until after I looked like a complete idiot in front of my neighbor.
“Right,” he laughed softly. “Have a good day.”
I stole a peak around the doorway as I watched him enter his own apartment. One of these days I was going to figure him out.
Shoving the envelope under my arm, I locked the door behind me and shuffled to the car. After only a couple of hours of sleep, I desperately needed coffee.
Although it made me late, once again, to Dr. Elliot’s class, I did stop for coffee. Luckily, my professor didn’t interrupt class this time to berate me.
After the lecture, I pulled the signed form for my thesis experiment from my bag and hurried down the steps. “Dr. Elliot?”
“Is your alarm clock still broken, Ms. Whitlow?” he said without looking up.
Damn. He did notice. “No. I just didn’t get much sleep last night,” I muttered.
“I assume that’s because you were working on your thesis?”
Only if my thesis included a gorgeous naked man on the couch. And the bed. And the floor. “I got permission from Surry Elementary school. I’m in the middle of speaking with Lab Rescue and High Tails Humane Society. They’re both looking over the information, but I think High Tails has already decided to work with me. They have until Monday to get back to me, and then hopefully I can start drawing up an itinerary.”
“Excellent. Keep pushing the way you are, and I know you’ll be ready for this summer. It will have to be a full twelve-week program. You won’t be able to cut it short in order to have more time for your analysis.”
“I know. I’m not going to take any short-cuts.”
“Good.” He finally turned to eye me. “Ms. Whitlow, I’m sure you’re aware that Montgomery Industries is a big supporter of the school.”
“What?” Surprised, I stared at him. “I didn’t know that. Why are you telling me this?”
He looked like he wanted to say something before he shook his head. “It’s not important. I’m sure you’re acting ethically and morally in your actions.”
Shoulders slumping, I stared at him. He knew. He knew that I was sleeping with Lucas, and he thought I was using that power to push my thesis along.
But how did he know?
More importantly, why did he think I was the kind of woman who would use sex to my advantage?
“You have nothing to worry about,” I said softly as I lowered my gaze. “I’ve worked hard to get where I am now, and there is nothing but hard work driving me.”
“Of course. I don’t mean to imply otherwise.”
But he did, and we both knew it.
“Have a good weekend, professor.”
“Email me if you need me for anything,” he said absently, but he didn’t look me in the eye.
For some reason, I couldn’t meet his eye either. I had nothing to feel guilty about, but that didn’t stop the knot from forming in my stomach.
Is that what everyone would think?
It wasn’t until I got back to the car that I remembered the envelope. Sitting in the stuffy heat, I pulled it out and ripped it open.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I found. Pictures. One right after the other.
All of them with Lucas and Iris. Naked and in different stages of ecstasy.
“It’s in the past,” I whispered. “It has nothing to do with me.”
My hands shook as I shuffled through them. Even though I knew what it would do to me, I couldn’t stop.
There was a note at the end.
This is who he is with during every lunch break. You seem like a nice girl. I thought you should know.
Chapter 9
Lucas
“The expansion into Japan is going well. The factory should be up and running sometime next month,” I said tonelessly as I tried not to yawn. It wasn’t just that I didn’t get much sleep last night. There were easy moments with Sloan. Time where it felt comfortable and natural. But when she was in my bed, I gave her everything I had. I was driven by every moan, every quiver, every soft sound that I could wrench from her pretty little mouth.
It was perfect and exhausting.
“And Boston?” Jenson asked hotly. “We’re not here to talk about Japan. I want to know why you’ve halted the search for real estate in Boston. We projected next quarter using those numbers.”
Just two years ago, Jenson was nothing more than the irresponsible son of an extremely wealthy family. His mother was born into old money, and his father owned a pharmaceutical company. His mother died years ago of cancer, and he lost his father in a house fire. Jenson had immediately sold the company and had millions to play with.
He had a hand in several pies around the country, but he seemed to enjoy investing in me. I wanted to smack the smile right off the little asshole’s face, but his father and my father had been good friends. If he were older, we might have grown up friends.
I couldn’t fault him. He was just bringing up what everyone was thinking. I had to handle this carefully.
“I was given some new information last week, and it has caused me to reconsider the Boston project.”
Jenson smirked. “And what was that?”
“Some information that could greatly affect the Boston economy. That should play out over the next month, and then I’ll decide whether or not we should make the move or not.”
Addison cleared her throat. “What information would that be? Who is your source?”
I smiled. “Mrs. Addison, I have always shared pertinent information with the members of the board. I only withhold now because if you knew, you could be a witness against me.”
There was nervous laughter in the room, and I knew I’d covered the issue for now. We concluded the meeting, and when it was just myself and Hamburg left, Torrence joined us.
“Did you see anything suspicious?” I asked in a low voice.
Torrence shook his head. “Nothing. If it’s a board member, they’ve covering their tracks. You handled the situation well.”
“That’s true,” Hamburg grunted. “Meeting was a damn waste of time. You didn’t tell us anything new.”
“That’s the point,” I said softly. “I hate to distrust my own board, but I can’t risk any sensitive information getting out.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Torrence’s phone rang. I saw the tension in his mouth when he looked at the screen.
“Who is it?” I asked in a low voice.
He didn’t answer. Turning his back to me, he held the phone up to his ear. His shoulder’s tightened in anger, but he only thanked the caller and hung up.
“Torrence, what the hell is going on?” I demanded.
“There was a press release in the DC newspaper,” he said softly. “Something about a merger with Garland Software.”
I froze and stared at him. “That’s not possible,” I muttered in a low voice.
“Montgomery?” Hamburg growled. “What is he talking about? We’ve never discussed a merger.”
A shudder crawled down my spine. “That’s because the information never left my office. My private office. In my house.”
“God,” Torrence muttered. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“David Garland contacted me three weeks ago. He wants to retire, but he’s afraid his son will run the business into the ground. He wants to sell it to me so long as it could keep his name. I told him that I would think about it, but we both knew that I would agree. It’s a lucrative buy. The conversation never left the office. It never made it past the fucking phone. Torrence, you swept my home. You didn’t find anything.”
“No,” he said quietly. “So someone placed the bug and removed it without you knowing. They had access to your home, Montgomery. That’s incredibly dangerous.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. My mind was already whirling as I tried to think of the people who had been in and out of the house. I had a cleaning staff. People to maintain the grounds and the pool. The cleaning staff had a key, but they were thoroughly investigated. They were also the only ones allowed in my house without supervision.
“Torrence,” I said softly.
“I’ll look into your staff. You still have your security cameras up and working?” he asked gravely.
I nodded. “I’ll stop by tonight and have a look at the monitors. Please let me send someone home with you until I can get there.”
“No. If I do anything out of the ordinary, they’ll know. Come when you can.”
“Lucas.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“What about the company that you keep,” he reminded me softly.
Sloan. “That’s a low blow, Drew.” But he wasn’t wrong. Sloan had spent the night with me. I’d licked every inch of her naked body, and for all I know, someone could have been listening.
It made my blood boil.
“It won’t be a problem. She won’t be setting foot anywhere near the estates.” I would not put her in danger. No matter how badly I wanted her. “Hamburg, you don’t breathe a word of this to anyone. I’ll speak to Garland myself and see what he wants to do next. His stocks are probably going through the roof.”
The older man watched me carefully. “You can’t keep this a secret for long. The board is going to know about the leak. DC isn’t some small town. News of the merger will reach them.”
“Nothing has been finalized. I’ll contact the newspaper and let them know they’ve made an error. Pressure them to retract the article. If the board asks, we can blame the leak on Garland.”
“Fine,” he muttered. I stared at him. Was it my imagination, or was he in a hurry to make sure news of the mole went public? He’d brought the first leak to my attention, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t involved.
“Torrence, do whatever you need to do here. Send someone to campus to keep an eye on Sloan. She’ll probably be at the library until they close. I do not want her to know what’s going on.”
“How many times do I have to call you an idiot before you realize that I’m right?” he rolled his eyes but left the office.
Hamburg faced me, and I saw the troubled look in his eyes. “Montgomery, I’m afraid this is getting personal. We should call the police.”
“I can take care of this on my own.”
“You are your father’s son. It’s going to get you in serious trouble one day,” he said with a sigh.
I was my father’s son. And it made me millions. I wouldn’t let anything slow me down now.
I walked through the house slowly and wondered why the hell I stayed here. I barely used a quarter of the rooms. Most of the house only saw the footsteps of my cleaning staff.
It had never really felt like home. Even when I was a kid, it didn’t feel like home. My father was meticulous about what could and couldn’t be touched. I’d spent most of the time in my room, and even though I was master and sleeping in the biggest room of the estate, some things hadn’t changed.
The night lounging with Sloan on the couch was the most fun I’d had in the house in years.
Now that I knew someone had violated the house, it felt like mine. My home. My domain. My personal space.
Cold anger fueled me, but nothing looked out of place. I moved quietly from room to room and it wasn’t until the doorbell sounded that I finally stopped.
Opening the door, I glared at the gorgeous blonde. Iris. “What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped. “I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want to see you anymore.”
She just gave me a smug smile and pushed past me. “Calm down, darling. I’m just here to talk. The least you can do is offer a girl a drink.”
I didn’t budge. “What do you want to talk about?”
She ignored me and walked through the foyer. With a sinking feeling, I closed the door and followed her. “Iris,” I said in a warning voice.
“You always did have the best scotch,” she said as she pulled open the wet bar in my living room. “I didn’t hear the rumors until I got back to the states. The rumors that you were monogamous. It wasn’t until I saw you with her that I believed them. She’s such a mousy little thing. Easy for you to control? I bet she’s a submissive bitch in bed.” Her eyes glazed over. “Oh, we could have so much fun with her.”
“Enough.”
The anger in my voice snapped her back to attention. “My, my,” she purred. “You don’t actually have feelings for her, do you?”
“My feelings are none of your business, Iris. We had a couple good months together, but we both knew it wouldn’t be more than that. You left to do God knows what in Europe, and that should have been the end of it.”
She tossed the scotch back and bent over as she searched the bottles on the bottom. I knew the move was deliberate. Her short skirt rose high enough until I could clearly see that she wore nothing underneath. “If you’re here to seduce me, you’re wasting your time.” There was a time when I would have eagerly sunk into her, but she just didn’t do it for me anymore.
She straightened and smiled. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was hoping to have a little fun today. I have some information, and I thought that maybe you could pay me for it. The way you used to pay me.”
“I don’t require your information anymore, Iris.”
“Really? So you’ve successfully ferreted out that mole yourself?”
That got my attention. I watched her as she sat on the couch and patted the seat next to her. “Come on, baby. I know you want to.”
I didn’t move from the doorframe. “I do want your information, but I’m not about to fuck you for it. If you want money —“
She waved her hand dismissively. “I have plenty of money,” Iris said with a pout. “What I really want is to feel that cock in my mouth again.”
“Not going to happen. Get out.”
Sighing, she rolled her eyes and leaned back. “Fine. But I’m a good person. I’ll still give you the information.”
A few second passed. “I’m waiting.”
“Really? You can’t even sit next to me?”
Knowing damn well that it was a bad idea, I crossed the room and sat on the other end of the couch. I’d get the information and haul her ass out of my house. If there was one thing Iris was very good at, it was discovering people’s dark secrets. If she had information, it would probably be good.
I heard the front door open and turned my head. “Hang on,” I muttered as I moved to push myself up.
Before I could even blink, Iris straddled me and pushed me into the couch.
“Iris? What the fuck,” I muttered as I grabbed her hips.
She slid her damp pussy over my and moaned just as I saw the figure walk through the door.
“Oh my God.” Sloan stared at me, her eyes full of pain. Papers fell from her fingers and fluttered to the ground. “I am such an idiot.”
“Goddammit, Sloan, wait,” I shouted as I threw Iris off me and stood. Iris yelled in indignation as she hit the floor, but I didn’t care. I ran for Sloan, but she was already down the hall and out the door.
“Sloan!” Bursting out of the house, I watched helplessly as she made a beeline for her car.
“Don’t,” she shouted as she turned. “Just don’t come near me. I don’t do this. I’m not this woman that just sleeps with a man, but I gave you everything that you wanted. I asked you for one thing, Lucas. Just one, and you couldn’t do it.”
“Sloan,” I growled as I started towards her, but she was already slipping in her car and starting it. By the time I reached her, she was pealing down the driveway.
As she drove away, I saw that she never even looked back.
Two minutes. It couldn’t have been any longer than that. Two minutes from the time that she’d walked into the house and driven like a bat out of hell out of my life.
Chapter 10
Lucas
“It’s okay, baby,” Iris whispered. She ran her hands over my shoulders, and I quickly shrugged her off. I couldn’t even turn around to look at her.
“You have thirty seconds to get the fuck off my property. If you come anywhere near me or Sloan, you will not like the consequences.”
“Lucas! What the hell has gotten into you? She’s nobody!”
“And yet I would still choose her over you. Any time. Every time.”
“If you deny me now, I will never tell you what I know. This isn’t some pissed off employee that you’re facing, Lucas. This person is out for blood, and they aren’t going to stop until they have it.”
I felt numb. When her words finally penetrated me, I turned and stared at her. A smiled spread over her face when she thought that maybe I would give her what she wanted. “I would rather lose everything than give you anything that you want. Get. Out. Now.”
I’d never seen Iris look uncertain, but her mouth opened slightly and her eyes widened. For a second, I thought she was going to argue, but she turned and ran from the house. I didn’t even bother to watch her get into her car. My only concern was Sloan.
Bolting for the house, I quickly snagged my phone and called her. It went straight to voicemail. “Sloan, I need to explain. Call me.”
To be on the safe side, I texted her as well.
It’s not what you think. Call me. Text me. Now.
No one denied me. Until now. I waited all night, but she didn’t call me back.
First there was anger. She should have damn well trusted me. She should have at least stuck around so I could explain.
I started on the bottle of scotch. Someone sent those pictures. Iris? She wouldn’t have dared. Iris was calculating and cruel, but she wasn’t an idiot. She would never have done something that could have easily been traced back to her.
The mole. Iris was right. They weren’t just trying to destroy my reputation. They were out to ruin me.
I didn’t know why I came back here. Club 9 was packed with bodies. I didn’t even bother to make my way to the second floor where I could have had more privacy. I lifted the glass of whiskey to my lips and downed it.
It was my fifth one of the night. My eyes moved over the people undulating on the floor, grinding their bodies on each other. They were so starved for attention. Many of them would go home with a stranger in hopes the lackluster sex would give them a little relief from the loneliness.
I hadn’t seen Sloan in a week. I desperately wanted to explain what she had seen. I wanted to explain that the photos in her hands were before I even met her. I wanted to make it right. Even if she didn’t come back to me, I needed her to at least not hate me.
Randi just coldly informed me that Sloan was working on her thesis some place private. I tried to get Torrence to search for her, but he’d told me to let it go.
I nearly fired him over it.
The week had felt like months in hell.
And now it was over. It was probably for the best. I could focus on work.
I could fuck whomever I wanted.
As I signaled to the bartender that I wanted another drink, a tight body in a slinky red dress squeezed herself next to me. “Hi,” she said in a sultry voice.
Deliberately, I cocked my head as my eyes roamed down her body. Nice perky tits. A full round ass. Cock-sucking cherry-red lipstick. Lustful eyes that told me everything I wanted to know.
She’d let me take her home and do whatever I wanted.
“Hi,” I muttered.
“Buy a girl a drink?”
“Do you really need a drink?”
Her eyes widened in surprise before she laughed. “No one has ever asked me that before. You look like the kind of man I could spend a little time with completely sober.”
“I’m not a happy man right now,” I said softly.
“I don’t need you to be happy. I just need you to be hard.”
It wasn’t enough to make me stir, but it was enough to grab my attention. The next glass of whiskey appeared in front of me, and I knocked it back while she watched. I didn’t say anything as I sat it on the counter.
“So what do you say? Take a girl some place more private?”
What did I say to that?
The best way to get over one woman was with another. I had done nothing wrong to Sloan. There was no reason I couldn’t enjoy the sexy and willing woman in front of me.
Signaling to the bartender, I pointed to my empty glass and held up two fingers.
“Does that mean you’re going to buy me a drink after all?” she said as she put a hand on my chest.
“Nothing wrong with buying a gorgeous woman a drink,” I muttered.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
* * *
When He Loves
Chapter 1
Sloan
Randi put the finishing touches on my made up face and made sure the jet black wig of long, straight hair was securely fastened to my head as I slipped into the tall heels she let me borrow. She didn’t have to push me too hard to make me go out with her. I needed a distraction, a huge distraction to help me put Lucas out of my mind.
Thank God for my thesis work or I’d never have had the self-control to stay away from him. I don’t know why I ever let myself believe in the man. He was a playboy, plain and simple. No matter how it had felt, it was as fake as he was.
At least now I knew that for certain.
I’d let Randi glob on the makeup and put the wig on me as well as one of her tight dresses to make myself look completely different. Not that I was trying to hide, but I was trying to be someone else for the night.
My plan was to let my inhibitions go, for that night, anyway. My sexual sessions with Lucas had loosened me up. I felt sexier than ever as I now had knowledge that I wasn’t a drag in bed and Lucas taught me a lot too. So I was looking for a piece of strange man to make me feel better.
I didn’t care about much, I just wanted a man to make me feel like I wasn’t the biggest damn idiot in the world. I wanted to know if I really was attractive to the opposite sex or did Lucas pick me because he knew I was neither sexy nor smart enough to find out he was fucking someone else on his lunch hour.
And that total rich bitch at that!
The only thing I feel bad about is not slapping the shit out of them both. Now that would’ve felt great and maybe then I’d have some closure. But I felt like there were some strings left untied. Some things I’d like to have known but knew I never would because I couldn’t ever talk to that man again. I deleted his phone number and blocked his phone numbers so he couldn’t call me. I thought of it all and went away this last week to stay with another friend of mine because I knew he’d come to my apartment to try to get his, dumb ass, piece of ass, back.
But I’d grown smarter and would not be slipping back into that man’s bed, no matter how nice it felt. I actually thought we were getting close!
We’d sit on the couch watching television and doing lame shit that couples do. We’d play footsie under the sheets each morning then have awesome morning sex and I could swear he looked at me with my bedhead and sleep filled eyes with something more than lust and desire. I could swear I saw caring and even a touch of love in his dark eyes.
I shook my head to clear it, I needed to stop thinking about that asshole!
“Time to go!” Randi shouted as she clapped her hands, enthusiastically. “I can’t believe I talked you into this!”
“I have to get out.” I got up and grabbed my purse and put the long strap over my shoulder and around my neck to make sure it stayed securely with me. I planned on shaking my booty that night, come hell or high water, I was going to have fun if it killed me!
As we walked out to the parking lot, Randi took my hand and started dragging me to her car. “You’re coming with me.”
“No!” I shouted as I pulled out of her grasp. “Randi, I’m taking my car tonight. I have to be able to escape if I start to have a meltdown. Or I may need it to take my ass to some guy’s place and I’ll need to have a ride home.”
“I get you,” she winked at me. “Okay, take your car and I’ll take mine. But stay close so we can walk into the club together. If I go in alone, I’ll get scooped up and we won’t even get to have one drink together before the mating rituals kick in.”
We high-fived and walked away to our separate cars. I was a little worried about what she’d say about me taking my own car and I was happy she didn’t try to change my mind.
I followed her to the Club 9, the place where it all started, and we parked next to each other. As we walked in, side by side, I could’ve sworn I heard a familiar man’s voice and the giggle of some woman. But when I turned to look back, I saw no one.
I had hoped it was not the beginning of a paranoid night. If I kept hearing men who were close to Lucas, I wasn’t going to have a very good time.
Randi took us straight to the bar with the good looking bartender who eyed me for a moment then he laughed and pointed at me with a big grin on his pretty handsome face. “You! The redhead, right?”
I was flattered that he remembered me. That had been weeks ago and yet he even recognized me under all the makeup and the wig. “Wow! How did you remember me?”
He leaned in close as he set two tequila shots on the bar in front of him. “Your eyes, sweetheart. And these are on the house. You and your friend are on me tonight. Just remember to come back to my bar for all of them, I’d like to see a hell of a lot more of you. I’m Clark, by the way. And you are?”
Wow, already, a hit! “My names, Sloan.” I stuck my hand out to shake his and he took it with a laugh and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Clark.”
He looked to one side and gave the other guy working with him a nod. “Cover for me, will you, Steve? I’d like to take this fine young thing out on the dance floor for her first dance of the night.”
I was shocked. I hadn’t even been there but two minutes and already I had a very hot prospect. Before I knew it, I was gathered up by the man and taken out to the dance floor where he held me tight while we gravitated our bodies to the hard beat.
Thanks to Lucas, I had learned how to really shake my hips and move my body in ways that seemed to entice the man. Clark was pretty built himself, his eyes were a light green and he had a happy go lucky demeanor. Nothing like Lucas.
I found myself comparing them as his cock pressed up against me as we seemingly dry humped each other on the dance floor. Everyone else was dancing like that, so why not?
But something was missing. I felt no heat. No urgency to fuck him. He was handsome and had a dimple in one of his cheeks. He dressed nice, smelled great, I mean there was not one thing wrong with him except for the fact he was not Lucas.
So I decided I’d just have to drink until I forgot about Lucas and could only see Clark in my future. My future for that night, anyway. We danced for a little while longer then I saw him look around me at the line at the bar and he let out a deep sigh. “Sadly, I have to end this. I have work to do. Come sit at the bar and I’ll fill you full of alcohol and dance with you again as soon as I clear up that line.”
I gave him a nod and he took my hand and led me back to the bar. But just before he let my hand go to go back behind the bar, He pulled me in very fast and kissed me hard.
Our tongues roamed around the others and I could hear some cheering from the people waiting to get something to drink. Then he pulled back and held our clasped hands up. “She’s with me, tonight, boys! So hands off!”
Then he took me to a barstool close to where he’d be working and I felt happy. So damn happy that I really was attractive enough for that man to remember me and be so possessive of me from the get go. Then my happiness turned into aggravation.
What was I doing? Was I really about to let myself become another man’s possession? Why in the world did every man I met suddenly want me for themselves? And was that a really such a bad thing?”
I was about to be twenty-five. The age when a lot of women get into serious relationships. Those kind of relationships that move into marriage and family. I was of the age to become someone’s everything. And the guy behind the bar was giving me all the right signals that he’d very much like that.
He placed a very nice looking drink in front of me before he took a single order and leaned over and gave me a quick kiss before he got busy taking care of the other people. Some woman leaned in to say, “He must really love you. How long have you two been together?”
“We aren’t,” I told her.
She fanned herself and said, “Well, get ready for some action tonight. That man has a definite hard on for just you.”
I looked back to find Clark pouring and shaking drinks and the moment I looked back, he caught me looking and gave me a smile. “Having fun?”
I nodded and sipped my drink that tasted like a strawberry vanilla milkshake. It was yummy and creamy and nothing like a drink Lucas would’ve ordered for me. Then I turned to look out at the people dancing on the dancefloor and thought I saw, Lucas.
Why can’t I get him out of my mind?
Chapter 2
Lucas
I hadn’t seen Sloan in a week. I desperately wanted to explain what she had seen. I wanted to explain that the photos in her hands were before I even met her. I wanted to make it right. Even if she didn’t come back to me, I needed her to at least not hate me.
Randi just coldly informed me that Sloan was working on her thesis some place private. I tried to get Torrence to search for her, but he’d told me to let it go.
I nearly fired him over it.
The week had felt like months in hell.
And now it was over. It was probably for the best. I could focus on work.
I could fuck whomever I wanted.
As I signaled to the bartender that I wanted another drink, a tight body in a slinky red dress squeezed herself next to me. “Hi,” she said in a sultry voice.
Deliberately, I cocked my head as my eyes roamed down her body. Nice perky tits. A full round ass. Cock-sucking cherry-red lipstick. Lustful eyes that told me everything I wanted to know.
She’d let me take her home and do whatever I wanted.
“Hi,” I muttered.
“Buy a girl a drink?”
“Do you really need a drink?”
Her eyes widened in surprise before she laughed. “No one has ever asked me that before. You look like the kind of man I could spend a little time with completely sober.”
“I’m not a happy man right now,” I said softly.
“I don’t need you to be happy. I just need you to be hard.”
It wasn’t enough to make me stir, but it was enough to grab my attention. The next glass of whiskey appeared in front of me, and I knocked it back while she watched. I didn’t say anything as I sat it on the counter.
“So what do you say? Take a girl some place more private?”
What did I say to that?
The best way to get over one woman was with another. I had done nothing wrong to Sloan. There was no reason I couldn’t enjoy the sexy and willing woman in front of me.
Signaling to the bartender, I pointed to my empty glass and held up two fingers.
“Does that mean you’re going to buy me a drink after all?” she said as she put a hand on my chest.
“Nothing wrong with buying a gorgeous woman a drink,” I muttered.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Only, something inside me told it was wrong. Something in my head told me to get up and walk away from the vixen. But then the drinks came and I took mine and took a drink and looked her over again. I could’ve used a good roll in the sheets. God knows I missed sex. But the sex I missed was with Sloan and that wasn’t going to happen again.
I wasn’t even sure if she showed back up and told me she was sorry for not trusting me and not giving me a chance to explain things to her, it would be enough for me to take her back. To tell her we could go back to our agreement and continue as if she never went off the deep end.
“My name is, Veronica,” the woman said. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a clip and she let it out of the clip, making it fall around her narrow shoulders. “And you are Lucas Montgomery.”
“I am,” I said as I looked into her light blue eyes that were almost gray and found no depth to them at all. So I said something to see if she had any. “How’d you like to get fucked by the Lucas Montgomery?” I took another drink and watched her eyes light up.
Her hand moved over my shoulder and she leaned in. “I’d do anything for you. And I do mean anything.”
Her breath was warm on my face and the smell of the liquor was unappealing. The way her hand moved over my thigh and up to touch my cock, which wasn’t at all enthused with her, made my skin kind of crawl. But she was a warm body that had the parts necessary to please me for a little while so what the hell.
Then my mind slipped in a word that came out of my mouth without me realizing it, “Why?”
She blinked and pulled her head back and looked at me with a confused expression. “What do you mean?”
I shook my head to rid myself of the depth Sloan had brought into my life. Sloan would never say anything so stupid and simple before really knowing a man.
But I needed to stop comparing women to Sloan or I’d never want to fuck another one again. So I ran my hand along her jaw and whispered, “I want to take you in my car first and if you please me, then I’ll take you to my place. But I have to warn you, I’m not a happy man at this time and I feel the need to take out some aggressions. You don’t mind a spanking, do you?”
Her face came close to mine and her lips brushed mine as she spoke, “Not from you, I don’t. Tie me up and do with me what you want, Mr. Montgomery. I am yours for the taking.”
As hard as she was trying and as much as she was willing to give to me, it wasn’t enough. “Let me think on it, Veronica.”
She sat back and took a drink from the short glass and when she did I could see down out of the second story to the dancefloor on the ground floor. And there was a woman dancing with some man and making movements that caught my eye.
The way she was all up on him had me hot in a flash. I stood up and walked out to look at them over the balcony. Her dress was tight and red. Her hair was black but it was obviously a wig, a cheap one at that. I looked all the way down to her shoes and they were black and shiny.
There was something about the woman, the way she moved, and the way her curves filled that dress out. Then they moved around a little and I saw her face.
“Sloan!”
She had a ton of makeup on and that damn wig to cover her wild red hair, but it was her. That alabaster skin and those emerald eyes told me as much. When you threw in the way she was moving her body, I had no doubt.
Suddenly the man was saying something to her and he led her off the dancefloor. I watched every step they took and when they got to the bar he pulled her in and kissed her.
I stopped breathing, stopped thinking, and had to stop myself from hauling ass down to get her. I watched her hands move up and hold his shoulders as they obviously kissed using tongues and my insides turned to acid.
How could she?
Then they stopped kissing and he held up their hands and said something that had the people around them cheering and I watched him pick her up and set her down on a barstool then he went behind it and she was smiling like she was the happiest girl in the world.
My heart was barely beating. She was truly done with me. She must’ve moved on to that guy soon after that day she threw the pictures on the floor and left me.
I guess the looks I had been seeing in her eyes were all lies. I thought I saw more there as we spent our evenings and nights together. I thought I saw caring and even a little love in her big green eyes. But it couldn’t have been if she moved on so damn quickly.
Fuck! It’s only been a week!
Soft hands moved over my arms as I’d rolled up my sleeves. A soft voice whispered to me, “I’m ready to go when you are.”
Veronica was right behind me. All ready for me. So I placed my drink on the little table next to the railing and turned back to her. “After a dance.”
Nearly dragging her down the stairs, I made my way to the dancefloor and made sure I got close enough so I could easily drift us close enough for Sloan to see me from her perch on the barstool her new lover had placed her on.
I caught them kissing again as he placed some drink in front of her and fury nearly consumed me. How could she move on so quickly?
I knew we had this agreement to just have sex and keep it light but damn it! She wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain that Iris was being a slut like always and I was throwing her out. I wasn’t even going to get any information out of her. And I desperately needed that information.
During the last week, not one bit of information had come up to get us any closer to finding out who the hell was out to ruin me. And I sure could’ve used Sloan at my side. I needed her like I had never needed anyone. And she just left!
I danced us over and when we got close enough, I moved in and took Veronica by the waist and pulled her into me as I ground on her and kept heading toward Sloan who was chatting it up with some woman.
When the woman stepped back in line to order a drink, I saw Sloan’s eyes roam over the dancing crowd and made sure I was turned toward her. I was not far from her at all and stared right at her as her eyes moved over me then right back to me.
Her mouth fell open and she looked shocked. Then she was up and hauling ass. I took Veronica’s hand and pulled her along with me as I easily caught up to Sloan and grabbed her by the shoulder.
As she spun around, I threw my arm around the little blonde and found myself saying, “What’s up?”
“Fuck you, Lucas!” she shouted as she eyed the woman under my arm. “I see you’ve found yourself another fuck buddy, congratulations!”
Then something came out of Veronica’s mouth that might have really fucked things up. “Yes, he has, he eats pussy like no man I’ve ever met. Shame you left him. But good for me. I sit on his fat cock six or seven times a day. He tells me I’m a thousand times better than you, bitch!”
Sloan’s eyes went huge then she reached out and slapped the shit out of me. I was stunned long enough for her to get lost in the crowd and escape from me. I looked at the girl under my arm and pulled it off of her quickly. “Are you insane?”
She grabbed my hand. “Let her go. I want you, Lucas. She clearly doesn’t. Come on, let’s go to your car like you promised.”
I couldn’t find Sloan at all then I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, mister, excuse me please,” the fucking guy she was dancing with said as he moved past me, obviously trying to get to Sloan.
He sure did have his eyes on her and that made me furious. So I went after him with Veronica hanging onto me, trying desperately to hold me back as she screeched something about not needing the bitch.
But all I could think about is how much I did need her. All I could see was red when I kept picturing her kissing that man who was merely steps ahead of me. The something slammed into the side of my head and I was down.
Chapter 3
Sloan
My heart was pounding as I went as fast as I could in the sky high heels to get the hell away from Lucas and that slut with the tight-ass dress and fake tits. Just as I reached the door, I heard a man calling my name and it wasn’t Lucas’ deep voice. I turned back and caught a glimpse of Clark coming after me and looked at the bouncer who was between me and the exit.
“Can you tell him that I’m really sorry but I have to get the fuck out of here?” I asked the very large man who was looking at me with a frown.
He stepped aside and said, “I’ll tell him.”
As I stepped out the door, I reached down and took my heels off and ran straight for my car. It was parked behind several others so I was pretty sure Lucas wouldn’t see it from the door. If he went so far as to actually search the parking lot, he’d find me, but I highly doubted he’d be doing that now that he had that tramp to suck his cock.
I slipped behind the steering wheel and laid the seat back to make sure no one could see me. If I turned the car on and tried to speed away, he might chase me and then I’d be trapped for sure and have to talk to him.
The night was a little on the hot and humid side so I cracked both the driver’s and passenger’s windows as I waited for the right time to leave.
As I was hunched down, waiting, a voice drifted through the parking lot, it was quiet and feminine and I recognized it but couldn’t quite put my finger on who it was.
“She should be coming out with him any minute, her text said she had him in her clutches,” the female voice said.
I heard a smacking sound that kind of sounded like a messy kiss then I heard a man say, “He’s about to meet the end of his rule as Washington’s wealthiest man. It’s time for our benefactor to get the justice she requires.”
“Lucas sure fucked up when he hurt that lady,” the woman said.
My ears perked up and I found myself listening even harder when I heard his name. Who had he hurt and was that the person who was out to ruin him?
The man made a deep chuckle and with that little laugh I recognized him, “Drew Torrence, the head of his security team!” I whispered.
My windows were tinted in the back more so than in the front so I slipped between the seats and made my way to the back so I could try to see where they were and try to get a picture with my cell phone if possible. Now I knew why Torrence wanted to do things himself and leave the cops out of everything!
As I looked around, I finally found the car where the voices were coming from. It wasn’t the car Torrence usually drove. It was a small, blue car with darkly tinted windows. But the windows were all about a third of the way down and I could clearly see the man in the driver’s seat.
Torrence moved a little to reposition himself as he said, “Lila Sheffield was definitely not a woman he should’ve loved and left. She’s dead-set on making him pay for not finding her more to his satisfaction.”
The woman leaned forward and I saw her too. It was his secretary, Cecelia. I nearly shouted when I saw her. Lucas trusted that woman with everything. How could she do this to him?
And who was Lila Sheffield?
Taking my phone out of my little purse, I Googled her name and immediately found out who she was. A very wealthy woman in her own right as she was the owner of several large companies in the New York area.
She looked a lot like that Iris bitch and as I read through things more, I found a little bit of interesting information. Iris was the other woman’s cousin it seemed. So now the sudden appearance of the other woman made perfect sense. Iris was part of this thing too!
It seemed there were quite a few people who wanted to bring Lucas Montgomery down and I mean all the way down. So far down that he had to lose me too.
Now that I knew a jaded woman was the key to the whole thing, it all made perfect sense. And that slut who was hanging onto him was part of this thing too and I needed to let Lucas know that.
It occurred to me the pictures that were sent to me were sent by Torrance or Cecelia and I was sure they were from back when Iris and Lucas were a thing. And I didn’t give him a chance to talk at all!
I shook it off and realized I was wrong. Lucas needed my help and I had to do something. I eased back into the front seat and turned the car on, staying very low in the seat so no one would really see me as I pulled out.
I was pretty sure Danny O’Brien, Lucas’ driver, would be in one of his many cars parked in the back of the club, waiting for Lucas. I also knew there might be a chance Lucas had that tramp in the car with him doing something I might hate but I had to get to him no matter what.
And I planned on spraying my pepper spray right in that bitch’s face when I saw her again. I had quite a few people on my shit-list and was trying to come up with a plan to bring them all down before they managed to do that to Lucas.
Easing my car around back, I saw Danny leaning against a black car I had never seen before but I knew it was him so I parked behind the car and got out of mine. Danny looked at me with a smile. “Hey, stranger.”
“Danny, is Lucas in the car?” I asked. “Please tell me the truth. I know he might be with a woman but I’ve found out something very important and he needs to know this.”
Danny took a few steps and opened the back door. “It’s empty. He’s still inside.”
I pointed at the door at the back of the club and asked, “Is that how he usually comes out?” Danny nodded and I made my way to the door. Then something made me turn back and I asked, “Would you come with me?”
“I can’t leave the car,” he said. “But come here, real quick and let me in on what it is you want to tell him. Maybe I can be of some help.”
Being unsure if Danny was involved or not, I decided I couldn’t chance it. I shook my head and made my way inside the door and found myself in very dim lighting. It was a hallway then there was a set of stairs. So I took them.
The thumps of the hard beats from the music made the walls along the stairwell shake. I looked down at my bare feet and realized I had left my shoes off then decided I didn’t care, I had to get to him.
When I saw Lucas the first time he’d been on the second floor and I knew chances were he’d be there again. So when I got to the door at the top of the stairs, I got ready to open it and see him with his hands all over another woman and steadied my temper to handle that. Lucas was clearly drunk and I should have treated him so differently before. Lucas doesn’t get drunk. For all I know, that bitch drugged him.
Three men looked at me as I came into the balcony area. One came to me right away and said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Sneaking in here?”
“No, I’m not sneaking, I’m looking for Lucas Montgomery. Have you seen him?” I asked as I peered around.
“He was up here a little while ago. He took a woman down to dance. He might be down there somewhere,” the man told me then took a step back to allow me access to the balcony.
I could see the entire downstairs area and that’s when I saw the blonde woman fighting with Lucas in a dark corner. He was holding the side of his head as she pointed around and it looked as if he was confused.
Finally, he started walking away from her and coming toward the stairs to come up to the balcony. She was following him and trying to hang onto him but he was looking very determined to get away from her.
I saw her reach into her purse and in a flash of gold, she hit him on the side of the head with what looked like a set of brass knuckles. He stumbled a little and shook his head. She pulled back to hit him again as he was looking on the wrong side of him for who had hit him.
But he regained enough balance to move forward and she missed him the second time. I waited for him to come up to me as he was effectively losing the woman as he made his way to the staircase. Then the door I had come in opened up and a large man was looking at my bare feet.
He made a few quick strides and had me in his arms quickly. “You’re going back out the way you came, lady!”
I struggled and yelled, “I’m with Lucas Montgomery! Put me down!”
He didn’t do what I asked, though. Instead, he took me all the way out and all the way to my car before he placed my feet on the ground. “This is not a place for you to park, miss. Get in the car and get the hell out of this area. Now!”
“But, I need to wait for Lucas!”
He opened the car door I had left unlocked with my keys in the ignition and crammed me back into my car. “Leave this area now or I’m getting the police.”
So I decided to just do as he said. I didn’t see Danny anywhere to get him to corroborate my attachment to Lucas so I decided it would be best just to go out to his estate and wait for him to show up.
As I drove back to the front parking area to leave the club, I saw that blonde bitch in the red dress coming out and making her way to the car Torrence and Cecelia were in.
Something just went insane inside of me and I threw the car into park and jumped out of it, racing to the woman who had no idea I was coming for her, I shrieked, “I know what you’re doing! You’ll never get away with it!”
Then I saw Torrence getting out of the little blue car and he shouted, “We have to get her before she tells Lucas!”
Suddenly the blonde woman, Torrence, and Cecelia were coming toward me, and Torrence had what looked like a bat in his hands. So I turned tail and ran back to my car and squealed past them, out of the parking lot. But Torrence managed to get one hit to my car with the bat. It broke my right headlight and now I was down to only one and I was driving as fast as I could.
In the rearview mirror, I saw them all getting back into the car and I was their new target for the night. It was me who could end their whole scheme and they were hauling ass in a car that was much faster than my little four-cylinder job.
It took no time at all for them to catch up to me. Then a gunshot made me jump and I couldn’t believe what I saw when I looked into the rearview mirror. Cecelia was leaned out of it, holding a handgun.
I was fucked!
Chapter 4
Lucas
My head hurt like a son of a bitch and I had argued with that little tramp, Veronica, as I was sure she was the one who hit me but she insisted she hadn’t. She told me there was some man who came out of the crowd and did it. She said she saw him and proceeded to pull me through the crowd to find him.
Something wasn’t right and I could feel it. And all I could think about was getting to Sloan. As we got to a remote corner of the club, Veronica stopped leading me to the supposed man who had hit me and turned around. “Let’s just get out of here. I can’t find him. Come on. We can take my car.”
With a frown, I said, “No. I’m going home. Without you.”
I pulled away from her and found her hanging onto me like some kind of a freak as she shouted, “No! You’re coming with me!”
Ignoring her, I easily kept walking then I finally felt her hand leave my arm. But only seconds later I was punched in the side of the head again. I looked back quickly and saw no one. The punch seemed way too hard to have come from her but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I ducked a bit and hurried to get to the stairs and away from the crazy woman.
My head was pounding from the two shots to it and I was stumbling most likely from the over consumption of the alcohol and the two hard blows. But I finally made it up the stairs and went to the exit door.
Three guys were hanging near it and one of them reached out and touched my arm. “Hey, you’re Lucas Montgomery, right?”
“Yes,” I said but shook him off and tried to keep walking.
“There was a woman looking for you,” he said, making me stop.
“Black wig?” I asked.
He nodded. “But a bouncer carried her back out of here.”
I pointed at the door not far from me. “Through there?”
He nodded and I hurried out the door and down the stairs. As I pushed open the exit door, I saw the car we’d taken to the club but I didn’t see Danny. As I tried to open the door, I found it was locked.
“Fuck!”
I took my phone out and called Danny but it went straight to voicemail. I didn’t feel like waiting around to find out what the fuck Danny had done so I called a cab, pissed as hell at how the entire night was going. Then I called Sloan and found I was still blocked. An idea popped into my head and when the cabbie got there, I asked if I could use his personal cell phone. After giving him a hundred for his trouble, he gave it to me and I tapped in her number.
It rang and after the second ring, she answered. “Sloan Whitlock here. I’m in a situation and can’t talk right now.”
I heard a gunshot then she screamed, “Shit!”
There was a series of bumps and rumbles then the phone went dead. My heart stopped. What the hell was going on?
I gave the cab driver Sloan’s address and prayed that whatever was happening to her I’d find her on the way to her house. Then I thought I had better call the police too. I did hear gunfire and that should make it a top priority.
To be sure it was taken care of, I called Detective Allen. He sounded worried as he answered his cell, “Detective Allen, here.” I could hear jostling and then the sound of car keys jangling then the sound of his engine starting up.
“This is Lucas Mont-“
“Montgomery! Where are you?” he asked as I heard his tires peeling out of wherever it was he was leaving in a hurry.
“I’m on my way to Sloan Whitlock’s apartment. I think she’s in trouble, I heard a gunshot when I called her but I lost the call.”
“She called me, I’m on my way to her. I need you to go to the police station and stay there. I’ll call the dispatcher and tell her to put you in my office until I have this all dealt with,” he said as I heard more squealing tires.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I couldn’t even think straight.
“I can’t talk. I have to drive. I have to get to her. I’ll bring her to my office if she isn’t hurt.” He ended the call.
I didn’t know what to think or how to make things better. “Take me to the police station instead,” I told the cabbie. Then I saw a police car careening down the road that intersected the one we were traveling down. “Follow that car!”
“The police car, sir?” the cab driver asked. “Are you sure?”
I took out another hundred and dropped it on the seat next to him. “Yes, and if you can manage to stay close to him, I’ll give you another when we get to where he’s going.”
The cabbie floored it and my phone rang. It was Danny. “Boss!” he said as I answered the phone.
“Danny, where the fuck are you?” I growled at him.
“Someone grabbed me. It took me a while but I got away. It was a couple of guys and I’m pretty messed up, Lucas. But I’m alive. I need to go to the hospital, though. I have a stab wound in my left side and another on my arm where I was trying to fend them off.”
“What the fuck is going on?” I shouted. “Fuck! Do you have an ambulance coming for you?”
“I’m in the car. I’m going to drive myself. Sorry about the blood, Lucas. I promise to clean it up,” he said but his voice was weak. I knew the man was strong as an ox but blood loss is stronger than any man.
“Pull over and call the ambulance, Danny. Do it!” I told him.
He made a little sigh then said, “I’ll pull into this parking lot. I’ll lock the car up and take the keys with me. I’ll come back and get the car as soon as they let me out.”
“God damn it, man!” I snapped. “Don’t worry about that fucking car! I have tons of them. Call the ambulance then your wife and tell that mean bitch to get up there so she can be with you. Let me know what hospital they take you too so I can come up there as soon I have this other shit dealt with.”
“Do I hear a siren, Lucas?”
“You do. I’ll tell you all about it once I know what the fuck it’s about. Now make the call, Danny.” I ended the call before he could stall anymore.
Whoever was doing all of this was going too far. Going after my girl, my driver, and I think there was someone in that club after me. I never thought anyone would go to this length to ruin me. And why all the other people in my life.
I knew I needed to make one more phone call to let Torrence know what was happening. So I made that call and found him not answering me which was not like him at all. Before I could put the phone back in my pocket, it rang.
It was Torrence. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.
“Someone stabbed Danny,” I said, hastily. “There seems to be someone after Sloan too. I think someone was after me at Club 9. And I’d like to know where my security is.”
“Just calm down, Lucas,” he said with a slightly aggravated tone which pissed me off even more.
“Calm down?” I shrieked at him. “You have no idea what’s happening. Sloan is on the run from someone. She called the police and they’re on their way to help her.”
“They are?” he asked then I heard the phone make a clicking noise and I couldn’t hear a thing. I knew he had put his phone on mute. Then there was another click when he came back on. “I need you to get somewhere secure. Maybe the person who’s been after you has gone off the deep end. Your office is the most secure place I can think of. You need to get over there as quickly as you can. I’ll come to you.”
“No, I have to find Sloan. I’ll be fine. I need you to try to find out who the hell is chasing her. I also need you to find out who the hell grabbed my driver and stabbed him.”
“Danny was stabbed?” Torrence asked and I could tell he was speaking between gritted teeth.
“Yes, once in the side and on his arm. He’s called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Whatever this person wants from me, I need to know before anyone else gets hurt. If something happens to Sloan, I’ll stop at nothing to make sure whoever is doing this meets their end,” I said, seething with anger.
“Look, I know you’re mad, Lucas. But you need to do what I’m telling you to. Go to your office,” he said and then I heard a sneeze. A female sneeze.
“Who’s with you?” I asked.
“No one,” he said and his answer made me more than a little suspicious.
“I’ll call you later,” I said and ended that call before he could say anything else.
I knew something wasn’t right. And I knew I had to get to Sloan. So we continued to follow the detective and I sat back and let my brain go to work on what the hell was happening and how I could stop it all before someone got killed.
My cell rang again and I saw it was from Danny’s phone so I answered it, “How are you, buddy?”
It was his wife and she was screaming at the top of her lungs, “What the hell have you gotten my husband into? He’s being taken into surgery and I swear to you Lucas Montgomery, I’ll own everything you have if he dies for being involved with you!”
“Surgery?” I asked as my heart sank with the news.
“Yes!” she shrieked like a banshee. “What kind of shit are you into that has the people around you in danger? Shit! That poor young woman who you merely looked at in that club was nearly kidnapped just for that, Danny told me! So you better straighten your shit out or it’ll be me who you have to worry about and I won’t hide it. I’ll just show up with a gun and blow your head off to stop anything else from happening to my husband. Do you hear me, Montgomery?”
“Fuck! Who didn’t?” I told her. “I’m trying to take care of it. I’m going to tell the detective to keep an officer with Danny until this is settled. Make sure only a uniformed officer is guarding him and check the man’s badge and make sure the name matches his ID. We can take no chances.”
Her voice went soft as I could hear tears in her voice as she said, “Lucas, if anything happens to him, it will kill me. Please find out who’s doing this and make it stop. I’m begging you.”
“I will, I promise,” I told her then ended the call.
The lights from the police car pulled to the side of the road and stopped. “Pull up right behind him,” I told the cabbie.
“What is there’s shooting?” he asked with a quivering voice.
“Then duck,” I said. “I’ll pay for any damages that might occur to your cab.”
“Fuck the cab! What about damages to me?” he said.
“You too,” I told him as he pulled to a stop behind the vehicle and I got out of the car.
Only Sloan’s car was in front of the police car and she was bailing out and falling into Detective Allen’s arms as she sobbed. My whole body tingled with shock as I saw blood pouring down her arm.
Chapter 5
Sloan
I had no idea I had been shot until I felt the blood trickling down my arm. I was sure it was just a flesh wound as there was no pain until I saw the blood, that is.
Once my eyes took in the red line making its way to my hand, which gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles were white, I felt a burning sensation near my shoulder.
Thankfully, not long after that, Torrence took a sharp left for some reason and I was left alone. I pulled over and started crying like a baby until the police car came up behind me. When I saw it was Detective Allen, I got out of the car and fell into his arms.
Then I heard a man’s voice and looked up to find Lucas standing there. “Baby,” he said.
I pulled out of the detective’s arms and fell into Lucas’ and cried out, “It’s Torrence, Cecelia, and the little tramp you were with who were after me!”
Lucas’ arms tightened around me as I heard the detective say, “I’m calling an ambulance for her. And I’ll get a team looking for Torrence.”
“The car is blue,” I said as I turned my head away from Lucas’ chest.
Lucas shushed me and his hand ran over the wig and he pulled it off then pulled the stocking cap off me and used his fingers to comb my hair. “It’s okay now, baby. I have you now.”
“Lucas, I know who it is. I know who’s behind the whole thing,” I said through choked sobs.
“Good, baby. Let’s get you to the hospital and taken care of then you can tell me and the detective everything,” he said then picked me up and held me like a baby as I cried on his shoulder.
“I’ve never been more afraid,” I said.
His lips pressed against the side of my head. “I know, baby. You hush now. Just rest. No one will ever hurt you again.”
I tried to move my arm to run it around his neck but pain radiated all the way down it and I shrieked with the pain. “Fuck!”
“Keep it still, Sloan. You’ve been shot. You need to keep it still,” he said with such a soothing tone it made me feel better.
“I’m sorry, Lucas,” I whispered. “I’m sorry for not giving you a chance to explain things to me. Can you ever forgive me?”
“I already have. Do you think you can forgive me for bringing all this down on you, merely because I stared at you in that club one night?” he asked with a chuckle that shook his chest.
“I already have,” I said. “I missed you more than I knew was possible.”
“Me too, baby,” he whispered. “Promise me never to run off on me again.”
“Never,” I said. “Does that mean you still want me? And our agreement?”
“No,” he said.
My heart stopped and my body started to ache. He didn’t want me anymore. He may have forgiven me but he didn’t want me anymore!
I couldn’t speak as the ambulance pulled up and the paramedics had me on a stretcher in no time and in the back of the ambulance as Lucas stood there and watched with such sadness on his face it made me cry again. Not that I had stopped entirely.
He came to the doors and leaned in. “I’ll take your car to the hospital. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Can’t you come with me?” I asked as one of the paramedics put a huge needle into the vein on top of my hand, making me wince with the pain.
“Is he your husband or some other relative?” she asked me.
“No,” I said as I looked at him.
“No one but family is allowed, sorry,” she said.
“I’ll take your car, Sloan,” he told me. “And don’t worry, I’ll get to you.”
I closed my eyes as some medicine she’d put into the IV she’d just attached took me over. “Okay.”
Suddenly, nothing mattered. I guess the medicine was a mixture of pain reliever and calming agent. Whatever it was, I was feeling very relaxed. Finally, I was calm and the crying stopped.
My words were slurred when I said, “I really messed up. That man doesn’t want to see me romantically anymore.”
The paramedic looked at me with a frown. “For a man who doesn’t want to see you anymore, he certainly didn’t look like that. Don’t worry about a thing right now. Just think about getting better. The bullet is lodged in your bicep. You’re going to need a minor surgery to remove it.”
“Fantastic,” I murmured.
The rest of the ride was quiet and I kept drifting back and forth between being asleep and awake. Then I was being carried out of the ambulance and wheeled into a set of glass doors. There was a lot of chaos going on in the ER but I barely registered it.
My paramedic was on her little walkie-talkie, telling someone that I needed to be in the O.R. stat. Then I heard her say the bullet had lodged in the brachial artery and I would need immediate surgery.
“But it doesn’t hurt that bad,” I mumbled. “Are you sure it’s not just a flesh wound?”
She smiled as she walked alongside of me, carrying the baggie with that wonderful drug in it. “I’m sure. But you’ll be okay. You’re just going to be taken right into surgery.”
“Can I see Lucas?” I asked with a hoarse voice that felt odd as it came on quickly. “Is he here?”
“I have no idea,” she said as she shook her head. “Even if he was, there’s no time for visiting, I’m afraid. And they wouldn’t let him back here, anyway. It’ll be okay. You’ll be out of surgery in a few hours and in recovery for a while then in a room of your own and he can come see you then.”
“Why am I feeling so groggy,” I choked out.
“Because I’ve already administered a bit of anesthesia to help you fall under more quickly when the anesthesiologist gets started on you.” She looked up and smiled. “Here we are.”
The stretcher pushed open a set of stainless steel doors and I found the room freezing cold. Several men were waiting for me in blue scrubs and face masks. Then one of them came up to my side and said, “Hi, I’m Doctor Stan. I’ll be taking this pesky bullet out for you this evening. No need to worry, my dear.”
“K,” I muttered.
Two of the men came to me. One took my shoulders and one my feet and they picked me up and transported me to a very hard surface that was very cold. The thin sheet covering it did nothing to take the cold away from the obviously stainless steel operating table beneath it.
A man came up behind me and the smile he had shown in his blue eyes. “Hi, I’m Peter and I’ll be your bartender for this evening. I’ll be monitoring your vitals and keeping you sedated while he takes out that bullet. I can’t imagine how a nice girl like you ended up being shot, but I bet you have a great story behind it.”
“It’s alright,” I mumbled. “Nothing to write a book about.”
He laughed and placed a clear thing over my mouth and nose and said, “Just take in normal breaths, and soon you’ll be in La Land.”
And just before I closed my eyes, I saw Lucas leaning his head against the glass at the top of the wall. Then I realized this was an operating theater and he was in the room, watching over my operation.
I raised my hand and gave him a little wave and he gave me one back then he blew me a kiss. My insides melted with the gesture and I thought for only a second that it meant he did still want to see me. Maybe he had changed his mind and was ready to go back to our agreement after all.
I hoped so, anyway.
Then it all went black and I fell under the spell of the drugs.
When I woke up, I felt stiff and my arm ached. It hurt worse than when I got shot. A moan came out of me as I tried to move. “Just be still,” I heard a voice say.
It was his voice!
I laid perfectly still and blinked until my eyes focused. Then I saw him hovering over me as I lay in a hospital bed. I tried to talk but something stopped me and made me choke a little.
Suddenly his handsome face was gone and a female nurse was there. She put her hand on my forehead as she said, “Let me get the tracheal tube out.”
I gagged as something large slipped up my throat, making my eyes water. When it finally got out, I tried to talk and the sound was all scratchy. Lucas put his finger to my lips then the nurse pushed some button to raise the top portion of the bed up.
Lucas picked up a large cup with a lid and a plastic straw and held the straw to my lips. “Drink, slowly.”
I did as he said to and felt the cool water go over my now very sore throat. After I popped the straw back out, I muttered, “Ow.”
He smiled and kissed my forehead. Then the nurse took my attention as she began moving things around and calling for someone else over a little box on the bedside. “Now that you’re awake, we can move you to your room. Mr. Montgomery here spared no expense and you’re set up in one of our nicest rooms. He got another one of our very nice rooms for his driver, Mr. O’Brien. I’d say you two are pretty lucky to have this man looking out for you.”
“Danny?” I croaked as I looked at Lucas.
“I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now I want you to relax and heal, baby. No arguments about that. I’m going to take care of you,” he said.
I felt better already, knowing he’d be there with me and for me. But I felt bad about hearing Danny was in the hospital too. An urgency leapt up inside of me as I had yet to tell Lucas the name of the woman behind everything.
“Lucas, the plot against you,” I said but half the words didn’t make it out audibly.
He patted my shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. Your voice will be back by tonight and you can tell us everything you know then.”
A male nurse came in wearing Scooby Doo scrubs and gave me a smile. “Hello, I’m Leo and I’ll be your nurse until the evening shift comes on.” He took the bed and started moving me out of the tiny room and into a large hallway. “We’re going all the way up to the top floor.”
Into a large elevator, we went, with me on the bed and Lucas right beside me. I never felt safer than I did at that time. Lucas was like a rock and he was right there. He looked at me with something in his eyes I had never seen before. I wanted to call it love but this was Lucas I was talking about. Love wasn’t even in his extensive vocabulary.
When the elevator stopped and we got off, my nurse pushed the bed along the wide hallway and into a large room already filled with flowers and get-well balloons. Tears stung my eyes as I knew Lucas had all of this done.
I mouthed a thank you to him and he smiled at me as the nurse placed my bed right in the middle and put a television remote next to my left hand. That’s when I realized my right arm was immobilized. “Hey,” I croaked. “What happened?”
The nurse sat on the left side of my bed and popped a thermometer in my mouth then set about to check my blood pressure. “Oh, honey! Let me tell you how lucky you are to be alive. That bullet was lodged in one of your very important arteries. When the doc took it out blood went everywhere. You had to have a few pints of blood transfused to keep you with us. Your hubby, here, gave the okay for the transfusion, otherwise, the doc couldn’t have given it to you and the outcome could’ve been terrible.”
He took the thermometer out of my mouth and I said, “Oh my!”
“Oh my, indeed!” the nurse said as he raised his eyebrows and took the blood pressure cuff off. “Your pressure is still on the low side but that’s normal after surgery. I’m sure it’ll come around in a few hours. Anyway, if there had been no one around to sign the papers, the doc would’ve had to do the surgery then bring you out of anesthesia to get your permission for the transfusion and then give it to you, if you agreed. It would’ve been very hard on your body.”
All I could do was look at Lucas and mouth another, thank you. He was truly my hero.
Chapter 6
Lucas
When the nurse finally left the room, I sat on the bed next to Sloan and ran my hand over her cheek. She looked so weak and helpless lying on that hospital bed. It was my lust for the poor thing that had her there and I knew that without a doubt.
“What do you want, baby?” I asked her. “Anything at all and I will get it for you.”
She smiled, weakly and whispered, “Just you.”
Just me is all she wanted and I was thinking very hard about giving her that. She’d wanted romance and I’d given her very little of that. The room was filled with flowers I had brought in and balloons and I had one more thing I wanted her to have but I was waiting for her to get more lucid before that happened.
The door opened and the detective came in. “I stopped by your office. Your head of security was in the secretary’s office. Neither acted the least bit guilty when I talked to them about what happened last night. I told them Sloan had been incoherent when I got to her and couldn’t tell me a thing. I also told them that she still hadn’t woken up from the surgery to be able to point me in the direction of who it was who’d chased her and shot her. But when I asked Torrance if he could come to the station so we could talk more formally, he said he was unavailable anytime soon as he had a lot to do with a business risk you were having.”
I looked down at Sloan as she spoke with broken words as some just weren’t making it out of her mouth, “It was Cecelia who was shooting.”
“Seriously?” I asked with surprise. I never saw that coming!
She nodded and I got her giant cup of water and held it to her lips. She took a drink then she said, “And the name of the woman behind it all is-”
The door opened again and there stood Drew Torrence. I wanted to fly off that bed and tear him limb from limb but the detective shot me a look that told me to stay calm. I knew we had to get more than just Sloan’s testimony as to what she’d overheard to bring them all down.
Sloan gripped my hand and I felt her stop breathing. She was terrified and who could blame her. So I stroked her hair and whispered close to her ear, “You’re fine. I’m here. Act like you don’t remember a thing about the incident at all.”
Her grip loosened a little as the detective asked Torrence, “What are you doing here? I thought you were way too busy to go anywhere.”
“I need to talk to my employer.” His dark eyes darted to mine. “Alone, it’s about our leak.”
“I’ll come see you when I get time. Sloan is all I care about right now.” I was not going to go somewhere alone with the man I knew tried to kill the woman in my life. The woman I had grown to love.
He shifted his weight and crossed his arms. “I really need to know what you want me to do, Lucas.”
I wanted him to go jump off of a cliff but I didn’t say that. “I tell you what, Drew, I give you permission to speak freely in front of these people. I know Sloan has nothing to do with this since she was nearly killed. And the detective is here to help. So go ahead and say what you have to say to me.”
“Lucas, this room might be bugged,” he said, still trying to get me to go somewhere with him. “Do you have any idea who was chasing you, Miss Whitlock?”
She shook her head and I answered for her, “She can’t remember a thing about last night at all. I’m afraid the alcohol and the shock along with the anesthesia wiped her memory clean.” He looked relieved with my lie and that’s exactly how I wanted him to feel.
It was doubtful he’d do anything to harm me with the detective knowing I’d left the room with him, but I didn’t trust myself not to harm him.
The detective took the reins and said, “There’s no possible way this room is bugged. Only hospital workers have been in here.”
“You never know,” he said. “This information is too big to be found out. Or our guy might hear about how we’re on to him and leave the country. Then we’ll lose the chance to get him and stop this from happening again.” He looked at me. “You do want this to end and never have any more threats, don’t you?”
“Of course,” I said. “But you seem to think you get to decided things and I told you to speak freely and you’ve argued with me which is an ignorant thing to do. So tell me what you have and the detective will make notes. Won’t you, Detective Allen?”
He pulled out his phone and pressed a recording app. “I will. Start whenever you want to, Mr. Drew Torrence, I’ll record it all.”
Suddenly Drew was backtracking and seemed not to want to talk at all. Finally, he said, “I don’t want this recorded. The man I’m about to indicate in this is very powerful. If he found out it was me who ratted him out, then I’d be dealt with. If you know what I mean?”
The detective reminded him of something. “If this goes to court, which it will, then you’ll have to testify anyway. So go ahead and tell Mr. Montgomery what you have to say.”
“Do as he says, Torrence. It’ll save me the trouble of telling him myself. I will have to handle this legally after all. So, please let us all in on who is behind this. Because now we have espionage, attempted kidnapping, and kidnapping charges, plus two counts of attempted murder to add to the ever-growing list of crimes this person and all who have helped this person will be charged with.” I sat and stared at him as he fidgeted and squirmed under the pressure of all three of us scrutinizing him.
“You don’t seem to understand. He will kill me.” He paled a bit, getting into his act.
Sloan spoke quietly with a scratchy voice as she said one word, “Why?”
He narrowed his eyes at her then quickly stopped. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re young and naïve about the way the world works. I’m also checking in to find out who did this to you, Miss Whitlock.”
She was quick to tell him, “Don’t. The police are handling my attempted murder case. I’m not authorizing you to do a thing, Mr. Torrence. Stay out of my business.”
He looked at me and asked, “Is that how you want it, Lucas?”
I nodded. “She’s a grown woman and the decision is hers to make.”
“I see,” he said then began to back out of the room. “With the consequences that most likely will occur with my information, I don’t want to reveal anything at this time.”
The detective smiled. “That’s your prerogative at this time. If I need that information, I will have you picked up and brought in for questioning. You can bring a lawyer if you’d like.”
Torrence nodded then looked at me. “Are you positive you don’t want to let me tell you this in private? If you give the police the man’s name, then I’m left out of it.”
My eyebrows raised as I said, “Not very protective of you, is it?”
“Well, if I was going to handle this situation no police were going to be involved. I think you knew that, Lucas,” he said.
“Well, they’re involved now, aren’t they,” Sloan said. “And they’re going to stay involved from now on.”
“In all of it?” he asked me.
I gave him a nod and he looked afraid. It was the first time I saw fear in the man’s expression. But I knew it wouldn’t be the last.
He left the room and the detective put his finger to his lips and walked over to where Torrence had been standing. He pointed to the door handle and I went to look at what he was pointing at.
On the very back of the handle where no one would see, Torrence had placed a tiny bug. The detective took a picture of it but left it in place.
He gestured for me to follow him back to Sloan’s bedside where he picked up the television remote and turned the T.V. on. I got the idea and said, “How about a little television, baby?”
She looked at me as I turned the sound way up. Then I leaned in and whispered, “He’s placed a bug on the door handle. This is actually a good thing. We can lead him in the wrong direction and make a surprise attack.”
She nodded and whispered back, “Give me a pen and paper and I’ll write down everything.”
I decided to make small talk while the detective thought about what we should say to throw them all off. “Too bad about your memory, Sloan. But I have to tell you that I’m not all that upset about it. You and I had a little fight and that’s a good thing you don’t recall any of that.”
“Why’d we fight?” she asked and winked at me.
“Never mind,” I said as I found a small pad of paper and a pencil. I pulled up the tray-like table they had in the room that went over her bed and placed the pencil in her left hand and the paper on the tabletop. “I want you to think about nothing. It’s more important to me that you get well.”
The detective came up with some information that was true and made it seem as if we’d never find the culprit who shot Sloan. “I pulled up some traffic cameras and we got the plates of a small blue car that was following you through several stop lights. But the plates didn’t belong to that car. They belonged to one the perpetrators got off a car in a junkyard.”
“Were you able to see how many people were in the car or if they were men or women,” I asked.
“It was too dark to make anything inside the car out. The streetlights glared off the windshield, making it impossible to make out anyone,” the detective said as Sloan was having a bit of trouble writing with her left hand.
Then she stopped and looked at me with concern. “Lucas, I have to get my thesis done. How can I do it if I have no use of my right hand? I’ll never get to graduate this year. I’ll have to go longer.”
I wrapped my right hand around her left one to steady it as I said, “I’ll get you some help. I’m sure, given the circumstances, your professor will allow you to have someone to type as you dictate.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said as she formed the first letter. It was an, ‘L’ and then she managed to get out an, ‘I’ and before I knew it, the name, ‘Lila’ was on the little notepad.
I had no clue who that was. So I helped her with the last name and when I saw that it was Sheffield, it finally dawned on me who the woman was.
A one - night stand and a difficult woman to take. Lila was the cousin of Iris and I had no idea why she’d want to take me down so bad, she’d kill people to do it.
I wrote down the town she lived in upstate New York and the detective gave me a nod and said, “Well, I’ll leave you two alone. If I get any information, I’ll let you know, Mr. Montgomery.”
“Thank you, detective,” I said as I walked him to the door. “And I’ll let you know if I find anything out as well.”
“Good deal. We need to bring these people to justice,” he said.
“That we do,” I agreed and we shook hands then he left.
I needed a place no one knew about to take Sloan when she was released. It needed to be big enough for me to keep Danny and his wife and kids there too. I had no other people in my life worth hurting.
But now that we had the name of who was masterminding everything, the time was getting much closer and I had to do some fast planning.
Chapter 7
Sloan
Two days passed and Danny and myself were being released from the hospital. Lucas was able to stay away from his office as he told the staff he wouldn’t be leaving my side until I was completely able to take care of myself again.
The trap had been baited, Lucas and the detective worked together and finally, they found some bank accounts for Torrence and Cecelia that weren’t on file with his office. With the cooperation of the bank president of the bank the accounts had been drawn on, they found twelve people who Lila Sheffield made deposits to.
It seemed she’d been the one to set all of the accounts up for the individuals using a computer at her company’s headquarters. Not in her office, of course. But only two doors down in another lowly employee’s office, she’d done her dirty work.
What’s worse is she used that poor woman’s work computer to make solicitations for people who wanted to do some undercover work for her. She was setting up that woman to take the heat of what she was behind. But thankfully, Lucas was much smarter than she was.
The day we left the hospital, we were taken to someone’s home the detective knew and the family was gone for the week. Lucas made sure Torrence was off on a wild goose chase so we wouldn’t be followed. He’d told Lucas we were all going to his estate until Danny and I were better.
Detective Allen met us at the modest home in a suburb no one would ever look for a billionaire in. We sat in the living room that evening as he filled us in. “The videos from the traffic cameras have been enhanced by our team of professionals and we can see the people in the front seat. All the way to the gun in Cecelia’s hands.”
“Are there any of her leaning out of the window to shoot me?” I asked as I sat next to Lucas and he held me close to him.
With a smile, the detective pulled a package of 8 by 10 photos out of his briefcase and handed Lucas the pictures. They were clear as day and there were three of Cecelia hanging out the window and fire coming out of the end of the pistol.
The next pictures were from the outside cameras at Club 9. The tramp, who I found out called herself Veronica was seen getting into the car with them. There were also pictures from inside the club and it showed her hitting Lucas both times and even the third time when she missed. It was all there in color photographs. The bank records indicated the rest. And it was all about to go down on them all.
The police were ready for the battle that would surely come along with the capture of Torrence. He had an arsenal and many men to protect him after all. So Lucas had made sure to separate him from them at the specific time the officers were going to make the arrests, simultaneously.
A little lie was what Lucas told Torrence. He asked him to go out to his estate so they could talk. Where he would not be, but the police would. He’d made sure the staff was out of there but that their cars were there so Torrence wouldn’t get suspicious and flee the set up.
Detective Allen stayed with us so we would know everything as it happened as he had the radio channel on all of the policemen had theirs on to coordinate the plan. I held Lucas’ hand and leaned my head on his shoulder as we waited for information to come in.
He kissed the side of my head and whispered, “I can’t wait for this to be over and things can get back to normal for us.”
We hadn’t talked at all about our arrangement or lack thereof. There was just no privacy and the fact was I felt too weak to get into any kind of drama. Any more than I was already in.
The detective’s radio made a squealing noise then a man was talking, “The target is on the premises of the Montgomery estate, stay alert.”
My body went tense with his words and Lucas ran his hand up and down my arm. “its okay, sit back and relax.”
I tried to do what he said but I was on pins and needles. I had an idea that Torrence wasn’t going to be an easy capture. But Lucas assured me that the team inside of his home was a swat team. He would be taken in even if they had to kill him.
I really didn’t want any more bloodshed than had already occurred. I wasn’t an eye for an eye kind of person. I just wanted Lucas safe. I was falling in love with the man. He might never want me the same way, as he hadn’t tried to give me any kind of intimate kiss or touch. So I was unsure what he and I would have once it was all over.
We heard the sound of the doorbell ring at the estate and the officer who was officiating that arrest whispered, “Stacy get the door.”
The detective let us in on who Stacy was. “That’s a female officer. She’s wearing one of the maid’s uniforms to throw him off. Our men are stationed just inside the two rooms off of the hallway the door leads into.”
His radio went off again as another officer said, “We’re about to enter the front of Lila Sheffield’s residence. She is inside according to our intel.”
Another officer came over the radio. “We are just outside the office of Lucas Montgomery and we have a visual on our target.”
Lucas looked pissed and hissed, “I can’t believe her. Out of all of them, I can’t believe she’d do this.”
He was hurt by Cecelia more than anyone else. She was a magnificent actress, I had to give her that. But I felt so bad for those kids of hers. Lucas had promised me he’d take care of finding their father and making sure they were taken care of. Her three kids were at school that day. Their little worlds were about to be turned upside down and my heart hurt for them all.
The last person they were picking up was Veronica. She worked at a strip club and the officer in charge of her arrest made his presence known. “We’re going into the Leopard Lounge now.”
The sounds of all the men talking on the radio were confusing as they all had their intended perpetrators and all were shouting commands to lie on the ground and put hands behind heads. Then a loud buzzing sound happened and one of the officers said, “He’s immobile, cuff him.”
Detective Allen smiled. “They had to use the Taser on Torrence, it sounds like.”
“I hope they hit him in the balls,” Lucas said, harshly. “That man has it coming to him.”
I laughed a little. “A bit barbaric, are we?”
The way he looked into my eyes made my heart stop. “Where you’re concerned, definitely.”
He didn’t look like a man who was about to let me go the way I thought he might be thinking about doing with this thing finally over. He looked at me like he wanted me around for a long time.
One after the other, we heard the arrests being made and Lucas had the judge who would set their bond in his hip pocket so the amounts for each of their bond would be outrageous since most of them had a lot of money.
The feds were busily working to freeze their assets with the arrests made and things were clicking into place. With the news of the last arrest of Lila, the detective told us we were free to go home. Those people were no longer threats to any of us.
We left that house and climbed into the back of limousine Lucas had picked us up in at the hospital and back we went to Washington to start living our lives normally.
Danny and his wife, Lane, were pretty damn happy to be getting back home. As we dropped them off first, they gave us both hugs before getting out. “It’ll be great to get back to work, Lucas.”
“You’re taking a month long vacation. You let me know where you want to go and I’m setting it all up. I’m going to cover every expense. Plus, you’re getting a bonus. And Lane’s getting a new car. You call my dealer up and have him bring you a few of the one’s you might be interested in.”
Lane covered her mouth with her hands as tears sprang up in her eyes. “Oh, Lucas! I’m sorry I threatened to kill you that day!”
“No hard feelings,” he said.
I looked at him with surprise as the door closed after they got out and we were off to I supposed my apartment to drop me off. “She said she was going to kill you?”
“Yes, but I never believed her,” he said then took my hand and pulled it to his lips. His soft lips pressed against it and it made my insides flutter. “I want to ask you something, Sloan.”
He moved to get on one knee in front of me and my heart stopped. I couldn’t speak as he pulled out something from his pocket. When he opened his hand I saw a ring inside of a small black box.
“Lucas,” I said in a whisper.
“Shh,” he said. “I made a phone call after getting your parents’ number from your cell phone. I asked your father for his permission and I got it. So I’d like to ask you, Sloan Rivers Whitlock, if you will make me the happiest man in the world and become my wife?”
I think it was shock that filled me and had me unable to say a word. I just stared at that gorgeous and huge rock then I looked into this eyes. A lump was in my throat and I had to swallow three times to make it go down as he waited patiently for my answer.
Still, my words wouldn’t come out. He started to frown and my heart told me to hurry up. “Yes!”
His frown turned into a smile and he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto my shaking finger. “Thank God! You had me worried for a minute.”
“I couldn’t speak, I was overwhelmed, not thinking about whether I should marry you or not.”
He sat next to me again and pulled me into his arms. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Sloan. You have no idea how much I love you and I’m going to prove it to you every single day of our lives.”
His hand moved up the side of my neck then he cupped the back of my head and gave me the first real kiss he’d given me in over a week. My mouth opened and invited him right in as our tongues said their hellos.
My body ignited with the kiss I’d missed so damn much, it hurt. And we were going to get married and one day have babies and there would be little him’s and me’s running around the estate.
I ended the kiss abruptly as it all came crashing in on me. “Your society will not make this easy on you, Lucas. Just look how they treated me at that charity event. Oh, no. They’ll never accept me as one of their own. This is a mistake you’re making. I’m not worthy!”
He took my face in his hands and made me look at him. “You are never to talk like that again. You are soon to be Mrs. Lucas Montgomery and people will respect you simply because of that. No reason to worry. And if a soul is misfortunate enough to utter one word about you, I suppose you know I’ll have them publicly stoned for the offense.”
I laughed at his over the top words. He could be so funny when he wanted to be. But he was most likely right about me just having his name making people look at me differently. It might make them see me as being on their level.
God I hoped so, anyway!
Chapter 8
Lucas
My heart was pounding. I couldn’t believe my ears. There was a part of me that thought she’d tell me, no. I knew she felt out of her element with the people I rubbed elbows with but she could get used to them and their eccentric ways.
“So, move in with me,” I said next.
She looked at me with wide, brilliantly green eyes and shook her head. “What about my roommate, Randi? She can’t make the rent and all the bills on her own?”
“I’ll make sure your part is covered until she finds someone else to room with.” I ran my hand along her shoulders and pulled her tight to me. “I not only want you with me, Sloan. I need you with me.”
The way her eyes darted back and forth told me she was thinking about it. “Will you give me time to do my thesis and whatever else I need to do?”
“I’ll give you your own office, baby,” I told her as I hugged her. “Whatever you need or want, you will get it. I just want you with me.”
“Randi’s probably going to be pissed at me,” she said.
So I threw in something extra, “I’ll send one of my maids over to clean the apartment once a week and do all of her laundry. I’ll also give her a brand new car. Whatever kind she wants.”
“Wow!” she said as she nodded. “Now that might help soften the blow. Okay, I’ll move in with you then. How can I say no and cost Randi all of that good stuff?”
So I sat back and held her in my arms and felt better than I ever remembered feeling. She was going to be with me every night and each morning. I was hooked on her like I didn’t know was possible. I had been fighting it but nearly losing her made me see time was a gift and I needed to be a hell of a lot more appreciative of that.
Our first night back home had us watching some television in bed as I fed her some crackers and cheese so she’d have something on her stomach when she took her pain meds. I had become a nursemaid, a thing I never knew I was good at. But like most things, I figured out what needed to be done and developed a plan to do it and became great at it.
Her sweet red lips parted to accept the food I placed against them. Her eyes twinkled as she took the bite and then she sighed. “You’re really sweet when you put your mind to it.”
“So are you,” I said then gave her a sip of water.
She gave me a smile. “I’m always sweet.”
“I’m not about to argue with you,” I said with a laugh.
I think we both knew she had a short fuse but who was I to bring that up? Especially since I wanted to keep her calm and happy. After one more cheese covered cracker, I handed her the pill to ease her pain.
She handed the glass of water back to me after taking the pill and said, “Lucas, do you think we could have sex? I mean, I’ll have to pretty much lie still since my right arm is immobilized but I feel up to it.”
“Have sex?” I asked as I tweaked her nose. “Nah, I don’t think so.”
Her frown made me laugh, so I started unbuttoning the pajama top she had on. “I think we should make love.”
Her lips quirked up into a sideways smile. “You had me worried there for a minute.”
“That’s fair, don’t you think? Since you took so long to accept my marriage proposal?” I asked her as I peeled the silk shirt off of her, being very careful of her arm.
She nodded and ran her hand over my bare chest. “Um, hm. I have missed touching you so much. You have no idea.”
“I have every idea. If you knew how badly I wanted to climb into that hospital bed with you.”
“You should have. I wanted you to. I didn’t want to ask, though,” she said as her hand moved all the way down to the top of my pajama bottoms.
I got off the bed and dropped them then pulled hers off too and looked at her perfectly wonderful body. When my eyes had traveled all the way up her body, our eyes met. “You’re gorgeous.”
She smiled. “So are you. Now show me what these nights are going to be like now that we’re engaged.”
I ran my hands up her silky legs. When we bathed together before bed, I had shaved them for her, using an expensive shaving cream and the effects were stunning. “Like silk,” I said as I ran them all the way up to her knees. Then bent them and leaned in to kiss her sweet spot.
Her moan made me hard in an instant. One of her feet moved over my back as she lifted her ass up for more. She wasn’t that girl anymore who worried about having more than one orgasm. Now she was ready to have as many as I could give her.
I wasn’t planning on being too vigorous with her that night. She was fragile and I had to remember that. No matter how excited I got, I had to remember she’d been shot only two days before. But her body was calling to me and so was her mouth. “Baby, show me you love me.”
My stomach tensed with her words. We’d barely started using them and each time I heard the word, love, come out of her mouth it gave me such an intense reaction. My lips grazed her sex as I whispered, “I love you, Sloan.”
Then I gave her pert pearl a nice long lick then wrapped my lips around it and sucked it gently. The sound she made gave me chills. I loved the little sounds she made while I pleasured her. She really got into it and it made it so much sweeter.
I picked her up, cupping her ass cheeks in both hands. Loving the way they were firm yet soft and supple. I kneaded them like dough, making her purr and wiggle her hips up to me.
My intimate kiss deepened as I ran my tongue through her wet and warm folds until I found her hot canal and thrust my tongue into its wet, salty depths. Her back left the bed as she arched up and made a fantastic gasp. “Yes!”
Her left hand moved through my hair as I tongue fucked her until she was screaming my name and sending her hot fluids to meet my hungry tongue. I couldn’t stop, I had to drink her in. Her moaning and screaming continued as she pulled at my hair. Her body was mine and there was no denying it.
As my mouth left her sweet heat, I kissed my way up her body. Her legs wrapped around me as I slipped into her. We both groaned with agonizing relief to feel one another this way again. “Oh, God!” I moaned as I felt like I was home. “A week is far too long to stay away from this feeling.”
Her hand moved over my back as her lips pressed against my neck. “It is. What you do to me is amazing.”
I eased up then back down and pulled back to look at her. “Are you okay? I’m not hurting you, am I?”
“Not one bit,” she said as she bit her lower lip. “Now take me, Lucas. Make me only ours forever.”
“Oh, baby, you have no idea how I’ve wanted to hear that,” I growled. Her body was reacting to mine with a heated passion I didn’t recall her having before. I guessed it was the now permanence of our relationship that had her so hot and intense.
Whatever it was, I liked it. She arched as I thrust and we both made sounds we’d never made before. Her insides grabbed me and pulled me into her as I ground my hard cock into her.
She started into a climax and I stayed the course. I intended to see her through at least one more. Her nails dug into the flesh of my back as she gripped me tightly around the waist and wailed like a banshee with the release.
It spurred me on and I went faster and harder as her breaths went from harsh to ragged and she squirmed underneath me. Her wiggling sent me over the edge. I couldn’t stop the need to give into her. I spilled my juices into her as my body shook with the release.
It had been only nine days since I had been with her but it had felt like an eternity and now I had her. The ring was on her finger and all that was left was to put that all important gold band on both of our fingers to make sure what we had stayed secure.
With sporadic breaths, I whispered, “I’m never letting you go.”
“Not even when I get all mad about something?” she asked with a tired smile on her beautiful face. Her cheeks were flushed with the exhilaration and she glowed with love.
I couldn’t help myself. I rolled off of her and laid on my side as I caressed her hot cheek. “Not even when you lose that awful temper of yours, baby. I love you. You’re stuck with me.”
She laughed and pulled one of my fingers into her mouth and gave it a naughty little suck. “I think I’d like to be stuck with you. As long as you let me be me. I can’t have you thinking just because you make me your wife that means you get to control me. That’s not part of the deal.”
“Not even a little?” I asked as I kissed her alabaster shoulder. “Cause a little control isn’t bad, is it?”
She ran only the tip of her finger along my top lip as she looked into my eyes. “Not even a little. And I promise not to control you either. As a matter of fact, I want us to write our own vows. That honor and obey crap isn’t a thing I can agree to.”
“Well, you can agree to honor me. I’ll always honor you.” I ran my finger over her taut nipple, igniting a low moan from her sweet lips.
It went erect and she licked her lips. “You’re going to always honor me? Well, then I should return that, shouldn’t I?”
Leaning over, I took her nipple between my lips and rolled at as my hand laid on her stomach. It went tight as she ran her hand through my hair and let out another moan.
Releasing her tasty tit, I said, “And I will obey some of the things you ask of me. The important things like don’t screw around with other women and don’t be mean to you.”
“And don’t forget the most important one, Lucas,” she said as she pulled at my nipple, making it pucker and making my dick pulse. “You’ll always put the toilet seat down.”
I laughed and said, “Of course, I’ll obey that cardinal rule. I’m not trying to get my ass chewed out after all.”
Her lips were barely parted and it made me want to kiss her so badly. When I took her mouth she ran her hand around my neck and held me to her.
The way her lips began quivering had me pulling back and I found tears in her pretty eyes. “What is it, baby?”
She blinked a few times as I wiped the tears off of her cheeks. “I can’t believe this is real. I could never have even dreamed that I’d end up with a man like you. This can’t be real. I’m a nobody from the middle of nowhere and you are a man with a lot of money, power, and class. I don’t deserve.”
I kissed her again to stop her from saying anything else. When I ended the kiss, I looked into her eyes and said, “I am the one who doesn’t deserve you. Even though that’s completely true in every sense, I’m going to have you. You and I will never walk a step behind each other. We will go through this life, hand in hand, and be complete partners in this life. I love you and your hard-headed, stubborn, and completely loveable ways. You’re an inspiration to me and I’ll be proud to call you my wife.”
Then she burst into tears which she said were all happy ones and I made love to her again to get her to quit crying and start making those sexy sounds I loved to get her to make.
Our life would be great. I had not even one doubt about that.
Chapter 9
Sloan
A year after our marriage was official with a nice little wedding in my hometown with only a few friends and family members to witness it all, we were about to start our family.
I had graduated and started a nice little job with one of the poorer school districts in Washington. I was determined to figure out how to get those kids who needed a lot more than what life had dealt them more of everything.
More attention, love, choices, advantages and most of all education. And I was pleasantly surprised when Lucas helped me with everything I wanted to implement without bossing me around.
He did exactly what he’d told me he’d do. He treated me as his equal. He listened to me and instead of talking down to me when he had an idea that might work a little better, he talked to me about things. Lucas had a mind that was much like a machine. He was incredible and I’d have been a complete idiot not to listen to him and implement some of his great ideas.
Together, we were becoming a power-couple. But the good kind, not the kind who are out to get things. We became the kind who got things done for others. It made me feel great when I passed people on the street who knew of our efforts to help others.
I could pass another billionaire and get a smile and a nod as well as the poorest person in town and get the same nod and smile. It was all going so much better than I ever thought it would. And now we were ready to start our own little family.
Well, little isn’t really how I’d describe it. Lucas wanted to have at least four children. And when he told me about how lonely it was for him, growing up as an only child, it made my heart ache. So I agreed to the magic number four as he further explained that he’d been reading some of my old college school books and finding out that even numbers of children got along better than odd numbers.
How could I not agree with him?
So I beat him home that night and was lying on our big bed with a bottle of his favorite wine on the bedside table and me in a naughty negligée. It was a deep green color, his favorite color on me. It had a plunging neckline and was short. It covered just to the bottom of my bottom. I left the panties off because who likes panties, anyway.
I’d let my hair down and thanks to being rich and being able to spend loads of money on hair care products, my red mess had finally been tamed.
My cell rang and I picked it up to see it was Lucas. “Hey, you,” I answered.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m going to be late. The damn board members have their panties in a bunch over an overseas deal they think is a bad idea. I have to deal with them. This might go late into the night,” he said, wrecking my sexy mood.
“Oh, man!” I said as I was thoroughly disappointed.
“Did you have something you wanted to do?” he asked.
“Um, yeah,” I said as we had discussed this just last night. “I wanted to make a baby with you. If you do recall?”
“Oh that,” he said with a laugh. “We can do that anytime. It’s not a big deal.”
Not a big deal?
“Wow! I mean, wow! Lucas, we just talked about this and you decided the damn board members are going to come between us on this specific night? I’m not about to pretend that I’m not pissed about this. I don’t see why that meeting can’t wait until tomorrow! And what do you mean by we can do that anytime? This is supposed to be special, damn it!”
The bedroom door burst open and there stood my husband, tugging his expensive suit off as he came in the door. He was laughing and tossed his phone on the dresser. He kicked the door closed and looked me over. “Very nice. And I love that heated color in those pretty little cheeks of yours.”
“What the hell did you do that for?” I yelled at him. “You made me all pissed off for no damn reason.”
“Oh, I had my reasons, baby. You’re a wildcat when you get mad and I haven’t seen that side of you in a while. Everything has been going your way so much, I missed that spark you get when you’re mad.” He’d completely undressed by the time he’d stopped talking and my temper was even hotter when I found out he’d done that just to rile me up.
I hopped up on my knees on the bed and starting wagging my finger at him as I yelled, “Well, now I’m really mad!”
He just started chuckling and smiling. “You’re so damn cute when you get mad.”
“I’m going to show you cute, buddy!”
“I know you are,” he said. His hands went to my waist as he lifted me up. I kicked my feet and screamed. “Easy, red. You’re going to blow a gasket.”
Our bodies touched as he brought me back down then he kissed me hard, his hand held the back of my neck so I couldn’t back away from him. I wanted to stay mad but I couldn’t. When he kissed me it took all the fight out of me.
So I wrapped my legs around his waist as he walked to the end of the bed. The kiss grew as he laid me on the end of it. His cock was swelling as he ground it against my core. I arched up to get him to fill me but he pulled back. “On your knees,” he said with an air of authority.
He knew I hated that tone but in the bedroom, I quite liked it. My eyes went wide. “Are we establishing our dominance in the bedroom, Lucas?”
“I am,” he said. “So hurry up and do what I said.”
Eyeing him all the while, I moved around on the bed until my ass was facing him. It was then I realized something that had gone unnoticed in the monster-sized room I’d called our bedroom for well over a year. A large mirror filled the wall and I could see us both in it.
The dim light of the candlelit room made Lucas glow a golden color as he stood behind me. His handsome face was pulled into a smile. “You like the new mirror I had installed today?”
I nodded. “I have to say I do. And I have to confess I didn’t even notice it until it was filled with your gorgeous reflection.” His hand moved over my ass and I felt it but could also see it in the mirror. It made the feeling more intense and I went wet with just that.”
“I thought it would be nice if we both could see everything while we made our baby.” He leaned over and kissed the top of my left butt cheek as I watched him in the mirror. It made me moan and my body began to ache.
“I think you had a very good idea, hubby,” I said as I continued to watch him and feel him at the same time.
He leaned over me, not making any penetration but everything was touching me. His chest on my back felt warm and he pulled my hair away from one side of my neck and ran his teeth up the long column.
His dark hair fell over the side of his face as I watched him nip and suck my neck. All I could do was watch how gracefully he moved his body along mine. His hands dipped at my waist as he pulled back and ran his hands along me as he did.
My sides quivered as his hands stopped at my waist and he pulled me back until his hard cock was between my ass cheeks. It was straight up, only the side of it was between them and when he started pumping against my rectum it sent a mix of fear that he was about to stick it into me and hope that he was about to stick into me.
I closed my eyes with the new sensation and his hand connected with my ass. “Eyes open!” came his order. “I want to see those gorgeous green eyes all the while I take you.”
I nodded and smiled. “Got it, boss.”
He smiled back and continued to stimulate my ass in a way I didn’t know I’d like. As he pumped away, he looked at me through the mirror and sucked two of his long fingers. He placed them on my clit and began rubbing it until it was hard as a rock. The combination of actions had me on fire.
When his fingers went inside of me, I felt my walls gripping him. I wanted more than just his fingers but if that was all he was allowing me at that time then I was going to come all over them.
I rocked back on him, our bodies moved back and forth in a rhythmic motion. I started shaking as the orgasm crested inside of me. He smiled and moved his fingers out of me and put his hands on my shoulders, pressing down until they were on the bed and my ass was high up in the air.
His nails raked down my back as he stood back up and then his large, hot cock was thrust into me with one hard movement. He stayed perfectly still while my orgasm moved my body around his cock. I felt it pulsing inside of me and it made my orgasm go on and even grow in intensity. I was a squealing mess of pure pleasure.
Once my walls had stopped convulsing around him, he pulled his cock back slowly. His hands went to my hips and his eyes met mine in the mirror. “I want you to wait until I tell you to come. I want us to climax together.”
“Okay, that sounds good to me too,” I said as I bit my lip and hoped I could hold it back.
That wasn’t a thing we practiced. He allowed me to climax as many times as my body needed to. But he was right. Making a baby was different from everyday sex. It needed to be memorable. It needed to be more about us coming together to bring another life into this world.
No one could ever accuse Lucas of being unemotional. He may seem stiff and unmoved in the boardroom, but in the bedroom and when we had our intimate moments, he was full of emotion and so caring it was nearly unreal.
His movements were slow and deliberate at first. He was easing into me as we held each other’s eyes but mine kept drifting to watch his muscular body move behind mine. He stopped for a second and lifted me up and took a few steps to move us where the mirror would catch our reflections from the side.
Now I could see his massive dick going in and out of me and I was mesmerized. His large cock moved into me and came out with a slick shine of the wetness from inside of me. I watched his hand gripping my waist then he slid it down and ran it over my ass.
I groaned with the need to feel his hand all over my ass. He lifted his hand and brought it down with a nice smack and I moaned. He smiled. “You got even wetter.”
“It makes me hot as hell when you do that.” I licked my lips and hoped he’d do it again.
When Lucas was being dominate in the bedroom, he didn’t allow me to tell him what to do to me. Any other time I could but when he played this role I was to be quiet and accept the pleasure he decided to give me. It was a thing I loved to do now and then. It made me feel a little kinky and very hot. Like he was a cave man and I was his cave woman. And as long as we both liked it, then it was going to continue to occur from time to time.
Chapter 10
Lucas
On a Monday in July, my wife had our first child, a son. I watched her go through a pretty tough delivery and she took it like a champ. Sure, she had to bitch out a nurse who wasn’t listening to her when I went to the car to grab some blanket she’d become attached to. I had to smooth her ruffled feathers and apologize to the nurse.
But Sloan calmed down pretty quickly with a kiss from me and the blanket wrapped around her, then apologized for losing her temper. I held her hand through it all and when our son made it out into the world, we kissed. A sweet kiss that told me more than words ever could.
Sloan loved me. She’d just pushed this eight-pound kid out of her body that I had helped put there and she wasn’t one bit upset about it. She loved me that damn much!
“I love you,” I told her as I stroked her red cheek. “You were awesome.”
“Thanks,” she said. “It was pretty hard. But looking at you made it all worthwhile. I love you, Lucas Montgomery.”
Her smile was radiant and her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. When our son was held up so we could see him those tears fell like rain and I found some brimming up in mine too. But I wiped them away so I could cut our new son, Jackson’s, umbilical cord.
His cries made my heart hurt and I asked the doctor, “Is he crying because this hurts him?”
She shook her head. “He’s just crying because this is all new to him and he’s cold and afraid. It’s going to be up to you guys to let him know it’s all good and you’re going to keep him safe for the next eighteen years or so.”
After his cord was clamped off and cut, he was wrapped in a little blue blanket and a blue cap was placed on his head and he was placed into my waiting arms. The way he stopped crying immediately had the whole room going, “Aww.”
My first words to him were, “Hi, little buddy. Daddy has you now. It’s all going to be okay. I picked you out the perfect momma and she and I are going to take care of you and love you forever.”
Sloan laughed and said, “I thought it was me who picked out the perfect daddy for him.”
I moved to her side and held the baby down for her to see him. She ran her hand over his chubby cheek. “We both know it was me who picked you out, Sloan. Out of a crowded night club with tons of eligible women, I caught site of you and I knew you were something else. You were special.”
She sniffled as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m pretty glad I caught your eye. We made us one cute kid here.”
I kissed her cheek as the nurse came to take the baby to do all of the vital stuff they do to babies. Then I let him go and turned my attention to his momma. I ran my hand through her hair and smiled at her. “Sorry about the attempted kidnapping, and the kidnapping.”
She laughed, “Don’t forget about the shooting.”
I laughed too. “How could I forget that?” I pressed my lips to hers then said, “But you stayed with me. It seemed like the world was against the two of us getting together but you kept on staying tough and making the decision to keep on seeing me.”
“Except for that one week,” she said as she took my chin into her hand. “That horrible week.”
“The longest week on record,” I said as I looked into her red-rimmed eyes. “Thank you for coming back to me. Thank you for marrying me and thank you for giving me a son. Our first one. Thank you for loving me, Sloan. This life would be nothing without you. I could lose every dime I have and as long as I have you, and now that little guy over there, then I’d be the richest man in the world and would never want anything more than your love.”
I heard a sniffle from across the room and looked up to find one of the nurses wiping her eyes. She noticed me looking at her and said, “Oh, Lord! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be listening. It’s just that you said that so well and it was obvious that you really meant it and, damn, I’m sorry. I just wish I’d have held out for a man who loves me the way you love this lady right here.”
Sloan looked at the young woman and offered her a little wise advice. “The way to get this kind of love is to give it. If you knew how hard both of us tried not to fall in love, you’d be amazed. This whole thing started out as lust then it turned into more than that. And when the chips were down, we held tight to each other. That’s where true love is made. It’s made in the trenches as life hurdles things at one or both of you and you hold onto one another for dear life. Because the thought of losing them is too much to think about.”
I heard another sniffle and found another nurse with tears. “You too?” I asked with a chuckle.
“It’s just that what she’s saying is so true and yet I never thought about it like that. My husband and I have been married for fifteen years. And the last three have been miserable. We even talked about separating but neither of us really want to move on to anyone else. And after listening to you two, I think all we really need is to remember what’s real. Why we got together in the first place. It was to join forces to make it through this life with a partner. Somewhere along the line, we forgot that. But I’m going to make a date with that old man of mine tonight and try to change that.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll have our rough patches but when you hold on through the times others would be saying goodbye and good riddance to one another you gain a little something.”
“Connection,” Sloan said. “You gain a connection you didn’t have before. You realize that person went through something pretty bad and instead of busting you up, they clung to you, they trusted you. A connection is made and it grows and grows until you feel like two parts of one whole.” Her hand gripped my arm as she looked up at me. “There are no better halves, there is just this one whole being who has two bodies, souls, hearts, and works together to make life livable.”
I kissed her cheek as the women watched and knew our lives would continue to go well. I knew, without a single doubt, that Sloan and I could get through anything, after all we’d been through.
“Only three more to go,” she said.
“What?” I asked perplexed.
“Three more pregnancies,” she said.
Then the baby started crying again and the nurse looked at us with a laugh. “Seems this little guy might want to be an only child.”
Sloan and I looked at each other and smiled. Then we both said, simultaneously, “He takes after you. Stubborn!”
The End.