Chapter Three
Damon
My eyes nearly exploded and my cock twitched when I caught sight of Elizabeth at the bar, that small dainty foot of hers bouncing at the end of the sexiest leg I’d seen. Long. Shapely. Naked and smooth. Perfect for wrapping around my waist while I drilled into her up against a wall.
Only two words came to mind. Goddess or witch. Her magic had already resurrected my dick from the eternal dead. I felt it grow inside my shorts. Hard. Stiff. Ready to… Fuck! Summer clothing left nothing to the imagination and I couldn’t turn back. She’d already seen me and was waving me over. I tried to think of something else. Anything. Boiled cabbage. I hated boiled cabbage. There. I took a deep breath.
She was rattling on about her inability to swim due to her asshole stepfather throwing her in a lake. My teeth clenched with rage. I wanted to pummel that guy into the ground. No human being should be treated like that especially a little girl.
Miss Elizabeth Doyle was even more gorgeous than I remembered, and it should be illegal to wear dresses that short while crossing ones legs over a barstool. A guy just didn’t have a chance against that sort of temptation. Well, this guy was keeping his dick in his pants. At least, until I got to know her better. And I would get her in that pool if I had to throw her over my shoulder and drop her in the water. Swimming lessons could save her life one day. I’d be a terrible human being if I let her leave the Delaney Club without teaching her pretty ass to swim properly.
Recently, I found myself dreaming about what style of bathing suit she wore. I really didn’t get a good look at the one she had on at our first meeting because she had a cover-up over it. Did she wear a barely there bikini or one of those hip skimming, backless, plunging neckline numbers? I wondered if her breasts would poof out over the top, tantalizing me with their softness. I shook my head, clearing my vision and trying to think of something else. Oh yes, Gran’s visit. We were going to talk about finances or the lack there of.
After saying a few words to each other, we said our goodbyes. I looked straight ahead, moving swiftly past the bar although it wasn’t easy getting my feet to move with a raging hardon between my legs. Again.
She watched me leave and our eyes never left each others . Elizabeth fluttered her fingers at me, before I disappeared down the hallway.
When I got to the gym, I threw my bag against the concrete wall with a thud. “Hello, everybody. I hope you’re ready to work.”
I stared at the overweight men hovering under the basketball net. Soon, I would have them rolling on the floor, and hopefully breaking a good sweat, their eyes so big and glassy they’d beg me to stop working them so hard. But what else could I do? They were only here for a few weeks. Serves them right, I thought darkly, for treating your bodies like goddamned garbage dumps. Which one would pass out first? Yeah, I was a little sadistic. It gave me a few laughs in a very boring existence.
I took my extra bar weights and my water bottle and set them against the wall. Why in the hell these rich cats let me torture them like I did never ceased to amaze me. “I hope you all brought water, because this session can be tough,” I said.
It was all useless, which is why I indulged myself at their expense. I knew, the minute their time ran out, they went back to their cozy little man caves complete with sixty-four inch wide flat panels, state-of-the art surround sound, and built in leather bars so they could watch sporting events while they guzzled down beer and ate every salty snack they could find on the planet.
One guy I met, had floor to ceiling dispensers filled with a wide-range of exotic nuts, corn chips, and custom-made nacho dip. This was the same guy who weighed three-hundred-and-fifty pounds, but expected to lose it all in the span of thirty days once or twice a year! He had no interest in eating healthy or getting fit after his time was up. He simply wanted to look more attractive so he could get sex. Whenever I saw that guy coming, I knew I would have to bite my tongue. He was also the CEO of the hottest internet gaming company in all of Europe, and a very good client. Men like that didn’t fall out of trees. Not to say he wasn’t one of the smartest business men I’d ever read about, but shallow didn’t even come close to describing the guy. Still, his money was green, just like everyone else’s. Guys like him always thought they could make a new start, simply by booking themselves into the nationally famous Delaney Club. Trouble was they never changed.
“All right gentlemen,” I said approaching the group, the first thing we’re going to do is learn how to skip rope. As soon as I uttered those words, half the group burst out laughing while the other half mumbled something to the effect of, “I’m outa here. and “what is this, a class for girly girls!”
“Come on, guys! Are you men or mice?”
I brightened when I saw one man take it upon himself to reach into the netted bin. Then he passed out all the jump ropes.
“Thanks mate,” I said, feeling the tension lift a little. “It’s not as hard as you may think and believe me it does burn calories.” I took one of the ropes. After giving a reasonably slow demonstration I said, “Okay. You try.” After about five more minutes, two men, whom I knew for a fact were coerced here by their wives, threw down the ropes and left the room. The same thing happened when we graduated to the elliptical trainers and then the weight room. One by one, these pampered billionaire overweight executives, half of which had never entered a gym in their lives, made one excuse or another to skip the rest of the class. More and more I wondered why I even tried.
“Titans my ass,” called the one who passed out the ropes. He was shouting after the last guy who was headed toward the exit. Specifically, Dale Carnegie: great, great, grandson of that Carnegie, Iron and steel tycoon. Dale was a rich playboy who made it a habit of embarrassing his family by falling down drunk at every conceivable family or political function. He’d hardly lifted a single weight without moaning and groaning the whole time.
I fumed. Jesus! Didn’t anyone here want a healthy body? Ironically, I knew they’d be back tomorrow, not because they changed their minds, but because someone in their life required them to give it another try.
“Well, that’s it,” I said to Jump rope guy. “The mice have jumped the ship. Class is over.” I started putting my weights, towel, and water bottle back inside my duffle bag, utterly deflated.
“The hell it is,” said Jump rope guy. “I came here for a complete workout and by God I expect to get my money’s worth. Got a problem with that?”
I took a step back, staring at the guy but not really seeing him. Then I burst out laughing. “Nope,” I said, scratching my head. “No problem at all. Let’s go.”
“By the way, my name is Jason.” I squinted as he held his hand to me. Before I shook it, I took in the straight patrician nose, the sharp suspicious eyes. “What?” he asked brows furrowed.
“Do we know each other? From somewhere else I mean.”
“I don’t think so. We just arrived this morning.”
I shook my head. If I didn’t know better I’d say he was a female version of the goddess but what were the chances? There were twenty-five-hundred guests here.
“So what’s next on your grueling workout?” Jason asked.
“Lap pool. You up for it?”
Jason frowned. “Not really a water boy, man. That’s the one thing I’d like to skip.”
My brother hates the water.
“All right. How about a beer then?”
His face beamed. “Now, you’re talking.”
“We’ll just shower up and then meet in the library. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds great.”
***
Thirty minutes later, I found Jason in the Edwardian styled paneled reading room—hands sliding over the floor to ceiling book shelves. He looked up as I approached. “You know my sister would love this room. Absolutely love it.”
“That so?”
“Besides the grandeur of this place, she’s a huge reader. I see a lot of history books here. I’m not sure history is her thing. Or maybe it is.” He chuckled. “I really don’t know what the hell she reads but when she isn’t painting, her face is usually in a book.”
“So she’s a painter.”
“Sometimes.”
“But I’ll tell ya…some of her works just grab ya. Know what I mean?”
“Maybe I’ve seen some of her work. I used to visit some of the galleries with my grandmother.”
“Nah. No one’s seen them. Every one of them is holed up in my attic.”
“A bit of a recluse?”
“Sort of.”
“Your sister sounds like an interesting woman.”
“She is…” He hesitated, obviously not sure if he should say more. “Most men don’t get her. Unfortunately for them.”
“Why is that?”
He took a deep breath and we both sunk into comfortable wing back chairs facing the only electronic device allowed in the room, a constant stream of the stock market exchanges splashed across several strategically placed computer monitors hung from the ceiling.
Chin lifted, he stared at the closest monitor, surveying the stock market quotes as they flipped through the screed while talked. So did I.
“You know that workout was rough. Every muscle in my body is screaming right now.”
“Too much for you?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Sometimes it’s good to vary the routine. Maybe we should try a game of squash this week.”
“Sure, but not until I get a complete massage. Loosen up these muscles a bit.”
“Good idea.” I grinned. He certainly was a good sport.
“I’m hoping to get back in shape while I’m here. I don’t really get why those guys gave up so easily. I mean, isn’t that why we booked into this place? I mean the real reason.”
“You’d be surprised.” We gave our orders to the waiter and Jason raised an eyebrow when I ordered a juice combination energy drink, instead of a beer or some other spirit.
“You don’t drink?”
“Nope. Then why… never mind, it’s not important.”
“Tell me about your sister,” I said.
“What’s to tell? Liz is great.”
Liz. I knew it!
“But she has this awful habit of hooking up with the lowest scumbag on the planet and then falling for the asshole.”
“I take it you don’t approve of her choices.”
“Now that is an understatement.”
“But she’s a grown woman right? Maybe the next guy won’t be so bad.”
“Not on your life because I’m not letting her pick the next one.”
“You’re not?”
“Hell no!”
“Are you saying you’re going to take over the selection for her?”
“Maybe.”
“And she’s okay with that?”
“Well, not at first, she wasn’t, but the last one nearly did her in. It scared the bejesus out of both of us so I kind of convinced her to let me try.”
I chuckled at the Irish euphemism. “Got some Irish in ya I see. I’m Scottish, myself.”
“Ah,” he said with a knowing smile. “Not a whole lot of difference between us, now is there?”
“Nope.” When the waiter set my drink of mango, papaya, and organic seaweed smoothie down before me, I sipped it and nodded my approval. Jason scrunched up his brows at us, but then chugged down his beer.
“So you’re actually going to pick a man for your sister? You have guts, I’ll give you that, but what if…what if she hates him? What if he’s not as nice as you think he is…or she doesn’t take to him like you hoped? Aren’t you worried she would may blame you?”
Jason stuck out his bottom lip. He seemed to ponder what I said. “I never thought of it like that.”
He slammed down his beer and the table shook.
“Fuck, the last thing I want is to give Liz more heartache. How the hell and I gonna make sure that doesn’t happen? If only…If only I had someone on the inside, you know someone who knew everything about the guests. Liz says at least one of them would be suitable and if I can’t find him, she will. I only have two weeks. Two weeks, man.”
I didn’t respond right away. The last thing I wanted to do was tell Jason I was the owner of the Delaney Club. Or I would be, soon enough. If he knew how much I was worth, he’d tell Elizabeth and even though I felt sparks between us, no lightning, it definitely was a game changer.
There were two reasons I kept my identity secret. It kept guests from hunting me down for every little thing, and two, it usually meant certain kinds of women didn’t see numbers instead of my dick. There were too many of that kind of woman in the Club these days. I didn’t thing Elizabeth was one of them, but I still didn’t know her that well.
“So, how do you expect to find this perfect man, anyway?”
“I have a list.”