I took a seat and laughed. Rico was determined to get rid of my curls which had proven impossible to get rid of, but he insisted he had the magic touch. I was skeptical, but as I sat there, watching socialites and executives leave the shop with sexy French twists, sleek blowouts and sexy beach waves. Not one of them left with curls like mine.
Decision made, I stood when Rico called my name and gave him the news of his life.
“Work your magic.” He gleefully pulled me to a station and pushed me into the chair where he put the protective sheet around me and dashed off to gather his magical ingredients.
“Hi.” A small voice called out beside me and drew my attention, shocking the hell out of me.
“Katelyn, what a surprise. How are you?” Clearly she was not in a coma or stranded on a tropical island.
“Fine,” she said nervously. “You?”
“I’ve been better, but that’s life right?” She nodded, still nervous and I resisted the urge to groan. “You can relax, Katelyn. I’m not in the habit of holding a grudge because someone doesn’t want to do business with me. I am curious though.”
Katelyn shrugged again, and I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her, tell her to grow a pair. “We both know we need to sell it. We’re doing a terrible job of keeping it going, but it’s hard. Dad built this station with his father, and look what we’ve done to it.”
In a weird way, I understood. Selling Peak Adventures had never occurred to any of us, but Blake was a savvy businessman and each of us had the skills required to make it succeed. “Take your time,” I told her even though it physically hurt to say the words. “When it feels right I promise it won’t be so hard to let it go.”
Katelyn blinked, taken aback. “Seriously? That’s your advice?”
“Why not? It might cause a war if one of us wanted to sell Peak Adventures, because that’s how much it means to our family. We use to model the gear in the Peak catalogs because Dad thought it was pointless to hire models who didn’t know a damn thing about the outdoors when he had three little outdoorsmen of his own.” I could hear his gruff words as clear as if he’d said them yesterday.
“Thank you for saying that, Lacey. And really, I’m sorry we’ve been so flaky.”
Her words startled me out of my own thoughts while Rico coated my hair with some sinister goop that he insisted would keep my curls away for a few days.
“It’s okay. This is your family’s legacy, but I might have an idea that could benefit us both. If you return a phone call or two.” She blushed at my words and nodded before her stylist escorted her to the bank of hairdryers near the window.
An hour later, I had pages of notes blind typed into my tablet while Rico brushed and dried my now sleek hair, giving me six additional inches of length. “Damn girl, if I swung your way I’d throw you over my shoulder right now.” He turned me to the mirror, and all I could do was stare.
My curls were gone and with them, the little girl look that I’d blamed for my lack of credibility in the workplace. I looked like a grown woman. A beautiful grown woman who was in charge of her life, who could face her ex-lover with his newest lover without feeling inferior.
“I never should have doubted you, you Evil Genius you.”
He laughed, genuinely pleased at my reaction. “I’ll take it, because you are hot with a capital H, honey.” He handed me two bottles and a jar, along with instructions for care. “Call me if you have questions.” With a kiss to each of my cheeks, he sent me on my way with instructions to “Knock’em dead, chica.”
I didn’t think I was the type of woman to knock people dead, but the fact that Rico thought I could be had me thinking that maybe he knew something I didn’t. Hell, he’d been on more dates than me over the past year, so yeah, he knew a bit more about how to attract a man.
If I was looking to attract a man.
Which I wasn’t.
Walker
“Talia, right? You’re looking well tonight.” The redhead I’d seen a few times with Blake’s fiancée and Lacey arrived at Pietro’s about three minutes after I did, looking wary and ready to flee.
“Thanks, Walker. Wish I could say the same.” She smirked and took the seat directly across from the large round table set near the private rooms in back. “Trouble sleeping?”
I barked out a laugh. “I thought you were an EA not a psychic.”
She shrugged and flagged down a passing waiter. “Dark beer. Ice cold, please.” The smile she flashed the kid was so bright and sexy he dropped his pad, and then walked away without taking my order.
I arched a brow at her. “Must be nice.”
“Sorry sir, I um…what would you like to drink?”
I smirked, ignoring Talia’s laugh and ordered a top shelf Irish whiskey. “Neat.” When he was gone I turned to her and laughed. “You were saying?”
“Oh please, making some teenager into a bumbling fool doesn’t do it for me. Neither do rich playboys.”
I found that hard to believe. “And poor ones?”
“Add money and it can only be worse.” I saw that she meant her words. That didn’t bode well for Lukas, because he was rich as hell and the biggest playboy I knew, even when I was at my peak.
“Yet here you are.”
“He’s interesting enough to warrant a chance, and I knew there would be other people here, including my friend. Lacey.” She looked around, craning her neck. “Where the hell is Lacey?”
I wondered the same thing, but my drink arrived and I took a long fortifying drink. “My guess is deciding whether or not she wants to come.”
“Nope, I talked to her earlier and she said she would be here. Didn’t you know?” She knew damn well I didn’t know, so I remained silent. “Damn.” She shook her head, curls swaying as she gave me a look that said she clearly thought I was mentally deficient.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she shrugged. “I know what her problem is, now I’m trying to figure out yours.”
“Why does anyone have to have a problem?” This was why I didn’t date or give women false hope, they thought every date was the potential for a white picket fence, backyard barbecues and two point five kids.
“You’re right,” she said, holding up her hands defensively. “Everyone doesn’t. But usually a guy like you finds a woman like Lacey, who is smart and funny and gorgeous, with her own money, so you know her motives are pure. I don’t know, I figured she was like a golden unicorn for your social set.”
“Lacey is great, but neither of us are looking for that.”
“Sure. Right. But…you know what? Never mind.” She took another pull of her beer and looked towards the door.
“Just say it, Talia.”
She did a piss poor job of hiding her triumphant smile. “Well, you’re like Lukas, made up mostly of ego. So I figured after you spent all weekend going at it like rabbits, you’d at least feel a little possessive of other guys touching what you’ve had.” She shrugged again, casually, but I was on to Talia. “Maybe I read you wrong.”
“Is there another guy?”
“Sorry I’m late. Apparently, the new hire in my department is lazy and stupid.” Lukas dropped down into the seat between me and Talia and raked a hand through his hair before flashing a smile at her. “You look beautiful, Talia.”
“Yeah, thanks.” She was completely unimpressed, and I felt bad for my buddy. “Did you fire the employee?”
Lukas’ expression turned fierce. “No, but I did demote him.”
“Unbelievable!” She leaned in, ready to give him a piece of her mind but he put two fingers to her lips.
“I am, I know. But before you get all riled up, listen.” Just like that Luke was in control of the situation. His fingers left her mouth and brushed down her bare arm to hold one hand while the other snagged her beer. He took a long sip and leaned back, still holding her hand. “I didn’t fire him because he’s new. Though I’d be within my rights. I did demote him because he didn’t ask one fucking perso
n to go over the contracts with him. He just sent them out, just like that. If that means you’re not interested, fine.”
She glared at him, but I could see the heat she’d banked there, and snatched her beer back. “Don’t ever put your fingers on my lips again. Who knows where your hands have been.”
Lukas grinned. “Who knows where they might be before the night is over.”
“Oh my god, my ears are burning!” Lacey breezed in as though she wasn’t nearly thirty minutes late. “I can’t unhear that, ever!”
I turned and froze when my gaze landed on Lacey. At least I thought it was her, based on those big brown eyes, the curve of her hip and that lush mouth I couldn’t stop dreaming about. Wanting.
But this Lacey was absolute perfection in a deep purple dress that hugged her tits and hips, giving her a sultry hourglass shape. Long straight blond hair hung well past her shoulders, down her back. “What the hell did you do to your hair?”
She froze half way into her seat and glared at me before she turned her attention to her friend. “I knew that dress would look great on you.” She smiled and I couldn’t look away even though all I could see was her profile.
“Not cool, Walker.” Lukas glared at me, shaking his head in warning.
“I didn’t mean it was bad. It’s just a shock.” The last time I’d seen her she had the same curly blond hair she’d always had, and now, this fucking bombshell shows up and I’m not supposed to react? I don’t think so.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t ask your opinion,” she said without waiting for a response. “Lukas did you know that Talia teaches burlesque?”
He barked out a laugh that pissed Talia off. “Seriously?”
“Do you think all women are just programmed to please men? That it just comes naturally to us all?” It was a set up question and I coughed in an effort to save him.
“Of course I don’t think that, but I never really thought of people learning burlesque.” Damn, he was screwing this up bad.
“Excuse me.” Lacey stood and grabbed her purse before making her escape to the bathrooms. I gave her three minutes before I stood and went after her, leaving Lukas to strike out all on his own.
I listened for the sound of running water and made my move, slipping inside the ladies room and locking the door behind me. “You look different.”
“So you said.” When her brown eyes met mine, they looked…bored.
“For fuck’s sake Lacey, you know you’re beautiful, the new hair just threw me off a bit.” I stepped forward and wrapped a lock around my fingers. “You look good.”
“Thanks. You’re blocking the door.”
“We don’t’ have to ignore each other, you know.” I don’t even know what in the hell was wrong with me, suggesting we get more familiar when I should have accepted the gift of her cold shoulder.
“Maybe not, but we don’t’ normally talk, do we? No. I haven’t seen you since college, even though you’ve only been away for what, a few years?” She took my silence as acceptance and stepped forward, reaching for the doorknob. “I’m fine Walker, don’t worry. I got the message loud and clear.”
What in the hell did that mean? I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against me, groaning as her curves rubbed against my body. “I can still smell you in my dreams, Lacey.” Cupping one of her breasts in my hand, I groaned when she arched into me bringing her round ass right up against my cock. “It’s not enough.”
“It has to be,” she moaned at the way my thumb brushed back and forth across the hard peak of her nipple.
I didn’t agree, and I knew it would take only a moment to get her agreement too. My other hand slid down her stomach and between her legs, cupping her heat and pulling another groan from her. She was hot and wet when my knuckles grazed over her swollen silk covered pussy. “
No, it doesn’t.” I found her waistband and slipped my hands inside, sliding down over her trimmed bush and into the slick heat of her plump pussy lips. Two fingers slid into her opening, deep and she moaned. I moaned with her at the way she clamped down around my fingers, pulsing. “It’s only enough when we say it is.” I pushed in and out a few times before letting my hand slide from her body.
“Tease.”
I spun Lacey so her back was against the wall and her brown eyes looked up at me with desire and a hint of wariness. When I slid the fingers that had been inside her, into my mouth, she groaned and dropped her head back with a thunk.
“Come over. Maybe tonight will be enough.”
She shook her head, eyes now clear. “That isn’t a good idea.”
I took a step closer and pressed my mouth to hers in a quick, fiery kiss filled with want and need and raw hunger. It was intoxicating and I knew I needed to pull back before things spiraled out of control. “Fine, I’ll come to your place.”
“Walker, you’re the one who wanted the weekend.” She sounded annoyed. Confused.
“You agreed,” I reminded her because she wouldn’t use my weakness to get more from me.
“I did, because I wanted to sleep with you, but after the weekend in the country I realized you were right. It could only be a few days.”
I should have felt relieved, but I didn’t. I fucking didn’t. “Yeah, because it was too good?” The question sounded bitter to my ears so her wince didn’t surprise me.
“Yes. It was…the best,” she said and rolled her eyes at my proud smile and puffed out chest. “But that kind of sex can make it easy to forget the rules. And I’m sticking by the rules.”
And that only made me want her more. “I’ll change your mind.”
“No, you won’t,” she insisted, but I just smiled because Lacey thought she knew me, laid back billionaire, playboy. But she didn’t know the determined asshole who’d taken his family’s failing media holdings and turned it into a proper empire.
“I guess we’ll see,” I told her and slipped from the bathroom, smiling as I made my way back to the table where Talia and Lukas looked a little friendlier.
* * *
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea.” Lacey stood in barefoot on one side of her door while I stood on the other, admiring her wet body clad in nothing but a towel.
“Yet you answered the door.” I was glad she did, but I’d be better once she took the damn chain off her door.
“Because I knew it was you and I just finished a bath.”
“I know, I can smell it. Lavender. Let me in, Lacey.”
I couldn’t stand it a second longer. That lavender scent and the way a few strands of her hair clung to her shoulders, had my cock aching to pound into her, my hands and mouth itched to revisit her body.
Her brown eyes looked uncertain, but a beat later she closed the door and disengaged the chain before pulling it open. “Come in.” She stepped back and waved me in. Her eyes were dark with desire, and her pulse was fluttering at the base of her throat.
I pounced, gathering her in my arms and ripping the towel from her as my mouth crashed down on hers. I drank from her succulent mouth for what felt like hours, hands roaming her damp curves as she clung to me. Melted into me. When her delicate hand reached inside my jeans and shoved them down, I was lost. “Lacey.”
“Walker,” she groaned and turned away, hands braced on the door, her ass begging me to come closer. She gave a little wiggle and I was lost.
“You want this too.” I wasn’t sure until now, but now that I was, my hands gripped her hips and my cock slid deep in one rough thrust.
“Walker,” she cried out and I made sure the only thing she could say was my name as I pounded into her, hard and fast as she pushed back against me, silently begging for more. “Yes! Please! More!”
A low growl escaped me at her words and I reached around to grab her tits, kneading her soft flesh and pinching her hard nipples while I drove deep and hard. Her cries pushing me forward, it was hard and fast and dirty and when we came together, it was spectacular.
I felt like I was floating as
I emptied into her pulsating pussy. Her cries hit me deep, and I couldn’t stop trembling for a long time. When I did, I pulled her flush against my chest and carried her to the bed.
“I needed that.”
She laughed. “So did I, apparently.” Her chest heaved even as she laughed and flung an arm over her face.
“So why did you make a big deal about me showing up?”
She shrugged. “Because I told you not to, but who am I to turn down what I know will be a spectacular experience?”
I couldn’t fault her logic. But it would have been nice to hear that she couldn’t resist me as much as I couldn’t resist her, but the proof was in her actions. “Spectacular, huh? I like it.”
Her laugh sounded again, and her hand landed on my chest, drawing a circle around my pec. “Oh, you know what a talented lover you are, I’m sure there are scores of women all over the world willing to sing your praises.”
She would be shocked at how untrue that was over the past year and a half. “I’m only interested in your praises, so sing away.”
Her hand slid down my chest, my stomach until her slight fingers and soft palm wrapped around my cock. “How about I make you sing instead?” She began to stroke me, and I lost myself in the rhythm of her small hand, the tight squeeze of her fingers as she slid up and down. The way she licked her hand and grabbed me again.
I should have been embarrassed by how quickly she made me lose my shit, but I wasn’t. It felt too good. “Lacey.” Reaching out, I snagged her wrist to stop the sweet fucking torture.
“Now you can tell me why you’re really here.”
“It’s kind of hard to have a conversation like this with your hand wrapped around my cock.” A fact she well knew.
“But you’re more likely to be truthful with your most trusted member in my hands.”
I smiled at her, propped up on my elbows so I could look at her. “But you treat my member so well, why should I worry?” The way I felt now, so boneless and sleepy, I wasn’t worried at all.
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