Gunner
We spent the morning lying in bed, lazily letting the hours of the day tick by in each other’s arms while we came down from our morning ecstasy. Sierra never ceased to amaze me. Even in the middle of taking control of the situation, she turned the power back over to me, allowing for us to both share control.
We lay in bed and caressed each other. We laced and unlaced our fingers. She held her hand up to mine to compare the size, showing me how my hand dwarfed hers. We laughed and smiled. We kissed and cuddled. If I hadn’t decided it was time to get up, we probably would have spent the whole day in the light flowing through my sheer curtains.
“How does lunch sound?” I asked as I climbed out of bed. I stumbled to the bathroom while I waited for an answer.
When I came back out, she was sitting up in the bed, having pushed the sheets away from her beautiful body.
“I think it sounds great. What did you have in mind?” Again, she teased me with her green eyes and tempting tone, with her fair skin and long red hair. She teased me with her fingers and her pink nipples, with the trimmed red curls just above her slit.
I wanted to take her again. I wanted to forget lunch. And that was exactly why we needed to get dressed and get out of the bedroom. Maybe even out of the house. We needed to go somewhere where I couldn’t grope her and throw her over the table in the middle of our meal.
“I was thinking we could maybe hit up a bistro in town,” I told her finally, forcing my eyes away from her delicious fruit.
“That sounds like a plan to me,” she said in an upbeat tone.
I laughed to myself as she bounced out of bed and walked past me to the bathroom. When things started, she would have challenged me even about lunch. She would have made some snide remark about my choice to eat in town. Today, she just complied, and she seemed to be doing so happily.
After we showered and dressed, I called one of the cars around to the front.
“Oh, we’re taking a driver?” she asked. “Why don’t we go alone?”
She made it sound like we were a couple of teenagers sneaking off to the movies together, to sit in the back row and make out in the dark without any adult supervision. I sighed. I couldn’t resist the idea of being alone with her, even if it made no difference either way.
“I’ll drive,” I told my driver. He hopped out of the car and handed me the keys. I patted him on the shoulder as I slid in through the driver side door.
My driver hurried around to Sierra’s side and held the door for her. I smirked as I watched him continue to do his job even though he wasn’t going to be driving.
“Thank you,” she said, and looked at me. “At least some people around here remember their manners.”
I laughed. “He gets paid to.”
“Well, if what we did this morning can’t be considered worth that treatment, maybe we need to amend our arrangement,” she said, turning her nose up at me.
“By our original agreement you should be holding the door for me,” I teased.
“Good luck with that. Where are we going anyway?” she asked, settling in.
“I was thinking Fiddler’s Rooftop,” I told her. It was a rooftop bistro downtown. “Have you ever been?”
“On a date? No,” she admitted, “but I have eaten there before.”
Of course she had. I drove us into town in the shiny black Mercedes. Though driving a car felt claustrophobic compared to riding my Harley, there was still a sense of liberty and power behind the wheel of the car.
We pulled up to the five-star hotel that housed the bistro on its rooftop, and I parked the car masterfully along the curb in between two other cars.
“I’m impressed.” Sierra praised my parking job as she climbed out of the car, robbing me of the chance to open her door for her. She leaned down and winked before she shut her door and turned away from the car.
I walked around the back of the car to join her on the sidewalk. She wore a stunning white blouse and fitting black skirt that one of my assistants had purchased for her. Her legs tempted me to put her back in the car and drive her back to the house, but I figured if I waited, I would simply want her more by the end of lunch.
“Shall we?” I placed a hand at the small of her back and started to guide her into the hotel so we could take the elevator up for lunch.
Fiddler’s Rooftop wasn’t located at the very top of the hotel. Instead, one wing of the hotel stopped several floors below the main section, creating a kind of terrace. It made for the perfect place to put a restaurant. We exited the building and seated ourselves at one of the outdoor tables overlooking the city.
One of the benefits of getting her out of the house was that it would give me the opportunity to get a little information out of her about who she was and what she did for a living. It seemed things were beginning to move beyond our initial arrangement—a few days of good, adventurous sex—and I found it appropriate to talk a little more about what was really going on.
“Do you know why I brought you here?” I asked after we ordered drinks and sandwiches.
“Because you wanted to show me you weren’t afraid of heights?” She narrowed her eyes at me and laughed.
“No, not quite,” I started.
“No! You don’t mean to tell me you’re afraid to be this high off the ground, do you?” She looked at me wide-eyed and put a hand on mine as if to assure me I was okay. I chuckled. It was pretty obvious she was just trying to avoid any serious conversation by making jokes.
“It has nothing to do with heights or anything like that. And for the record, I’m not afraid of heights.”
“Oh, good. That’s a relief.” She made a show of running her hand across her forehead in mock relief.
I shook my head and laughed.
“So, why did you bring me here?” Her voice turned serious.
“I wanted to talk to you a little bit. It’s been bothering me that you know so much about me, but I don’t know anything about you.” I tried to keep my tone light so I sounded less concerned than I really was.
“Well, I think you know a lot about me,” she said with a suggestive smile.
“Maybe I’d like to know more.”
“Like what?” She almost sounded peeved, like I had hit a nerve.
“Like your last name. Sierra what?” We’d spent almost a whole week together at this point, and I didn’t even know her last name. If it had just been sex and we were looking at the end of our arrangement, it wouldn’t have mattered. But we weren’t looking at that. I was faced with the possibility that this would continue for the foreseeable future.
She didn’t answer right away. She sat and stared at me for a minute first. I could see in her green eyes that she was thinking about what to say. I found it very odd that she wouldn’t just give me the information.
“It’s Farrow,” she finally said. “I thought I had told you that before.”
“If you did, I forgot it.” I was fairly certain she hadn’t, but I wasn’t going to accuse of her of lying to me.
“What’s with the sudden need to know things?” Her guard was up. Not a good sign. If I continued to follow through with my current line of questioning, it seemed likely that I would discover things I didn’t need to know.
“I just figured we ought to know more about each other if we’re going to keep our arrangement going.” I thought that sounded reasonable enough. There may have been an element of that initially, but as I watched her attitude change, I realized I needed to know what I was up against.
“Well, what else do you need to know? Want to know what I do?” Her tone was becoming almost confrontational now.
“Sure. That’s always good to know.” I tried to ignore her tone and keep things light, but it was getting hard. I did not want this to become a fight between us. I did not want it to become strictly business.
“I work for a collector.” Her tone softened a bit.
“What kind of collector?” My interest was piqued. Of course she worked for a collector of some sort. I still wasn’t completely convinced she hadn’t bumped into me so she could locate the Sun Stone.
“Art, jewelry, antiques, and other valuables,” she said nonchalantly. She was either hiding something or trying to downplay what she did. Neither reason for her tone seemed like a good one. However, her line of work brought me right back to the idea that this was all set up.
“Who’s the collector?” I asked, trying to probe gently. I was mindful of my tone. I didn’t want to sound too pushy.
“My employer doesn’t like for me to go around telling people their identity.” She stared at me squarely. This conversation was starting to enter the realm of business now. We were no longer two lovers enjoying lunch at a rooftop bistro in the middle of beautiful, sunny day.
“I can appreciate that.” I nodded, backing down to keep her from shutting me out completely.
“Thank you.”
“Are you at work right now?” It was a loaded question, I knew. I also knew that she would catch what I was asking her if she really were at work trying to find out the location of the Sun Stone. Her answer would tell me a lot about what was really going on between us.
“No, right now I’m at lunch.” She smiled spitefully and winked.
I knew a little bit more than I had before, but not much. I knew enough to go behind her back with the guys in the MC to find out more about who she really was. I hated to have to go behind her back like that, and I didn’t feel like I really needed to in order to protect the diamond. If she hadn’t figured out that it was at the house by now, she probably never would.
I needed to know who she really was so I could protect myself, though. Plus, if she worked for a legitimate collector, there was a possibility I could get her to turn on them for me.
“So, do you help your employer track down valuable jewelry and works of art, or what?” I asked, trying to take a different angle to get more information out of her.
“I usually just handle the deals. I help them procure different pieces once they’re located.”
“So, you’re the one who negotiates prices and such.” I nodded. “Not too bad.”
“You can say that. I do all the work, and they get to enjoy the art.” Her tone let me know the conversation was over. She went back to her food without another word.
I sat back in my chair and watched her eat. She wouldn’t even look up at me. She had all but admitted to me that she was after the diamond for her boss. It seemed we were right back where we started. Since she hadn’t come right out and asked about the diamond, I was going to have to assume she either didn’t realize I had it or didn’t intend on making a legitimate purchase.
However, that didn’t stop me from letting her finish her meal or from taking her back home with me afterwards.