Damage Control

by M. S. Parker

  Even though they weighed on me.

  Even though Astra wasn’t entirely wrong.

  There was a knock on the door, and I squeezed Astra’s arm. “Gotta go. That’s him.”

  “Say hi to Mummy and Daddy for me.” She blew me a kiss and wagged her eyebrows.

  “You sure you don’t want to come?” I picked up my purse from the foot of the bed and went to open the door. I smiled at Kaleb, then looked back, waiting.

  “You’d have to get me even drunker than you two were before I’d consider going through one of your family reunions again. And I’d have to stay that drunk. All day. I’m pretty sure that’s not good for the liver.”

  I laughed. “Probably not.”

  She winked at me. “Toodles!”

  “Toodles.” I made a face at her as I followed Kaleb through the door. Turning my attention to him, I asked, “Are you ready for this?”

  “Are you?” He skimmed his fingers through my hair.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” I gave him a brilliant smile and linked our hands. “Let’s do it.”

  The madder my dad got and the more my mother clutched her pearls – she literally clutched her pearls – the easier it got. Sinking down on a padded chaise lounge next to my great aunt Agatha, I gestured to Kaleb. “Aunt Agatha, have you met my husband?”

  She gave him a narrow look and a short nod. It was one of the politer receptions he’d gotten, but her attention on him didn’t last long. She was too interested in me.

  Holding a cocktail in one hand and a book in the other, she studied me.

  “Just what are you up to, Piety?” she asked.

  “I’m introducing you to my husband,” I said innocently.

  “Humph.” She took a lusty sip of the cocktail and put her book down. It was a romance, one featuring a bare-chested man with a woman bent over his arm, her boobs all but falling out of the dress. The sight of it made me grin. “Your husband. What’s his middle name?”

  It caught me offguard, and I felt like an idiot – I didn’t know.

  “What’s yours?” Kaleb asked, interrupting smoothly. He sat down on the chaise next to me and gave Agatha a mega-watt smile. “If I’d known Piety was holding out on me, I might have told her no.”

  To my surprise, a laugh boomed out of Agatha. “She proposed to you?”

  Some of the suspicion leaked from her eyes, and she sighed, reaching out to pat my knee. “Keep your secrets, Piety. I won’t blab. But it’s going to take more than this for them to leave you be.” She leaned back and settled more comfortably against the chaise. “It’s going to take you.”

  I wasn’t even going to try to follow that line of thought, and she didn’t give me the chance. “Here,” she said, pushing her nearly empty cocktail into my hand. “Go refill me. I’m thirsty, and I want to admire the arm candy you brought.”

  Wariness flooded me. “Aunt Agatha…”

  “Oh, relax. None of them will bother him if he’s with me.” Aunt Agatha gave me a serene smile, then one final pat on my knee. “Go on now.”

  Sighing, I went on.

  As I made my way through the crowd of aunts, uncles, cousins, and various other relations, I told myself I didn’t need to hurry, that Aunt Agatha wouldn’t expose our secrets.

  Then I wished I would have hurried, because I came face to face with one of the few cousins I would have done anything to avoid.

  “Well, well, well.” Tabitha smiled at me. She was my father’s niece, and she looked far too like me, save for the hair. Hers was a bronzed sort of blonde, and the stylist she used teased out shades of gold and caramel. She was shorter and softer, a gentler reflection.

  At least physically.

  Inside, Tabitha was a piranha.

  “How’s life for the newlywed?” She gave me a look of innocent curiosity. “I hear you married an exotic dancer. Does he still…perform?”

  “Hi, Tabitha.” I chose to ignore her latter comment.

  “You see, a friend of mine is getting married, and I’m in charge of the entertainment.” She took a step closer and gave me a devious smile before glancing toward where I’d left Kaleb with Aunt Agatha. “And he is certainly entertaining. Easy on the eyes.”

  “Nice try,” I said. With a casual smile, I smoothed out a non-existent wrinkle in my dress. “But you and I know none of your friends are warm-blooded enough to enjoy a man of Kaleb’s talents. Snakes have no desire for such…fleshly desires. Unless you’re in a man-eating sort of mood.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” She smiled, although her idea of a smile was just the slightest curl of her lips. Heaven forbid she do something that might lead to wrinkles. “A girl has to experiment every now and then. You clearly have…and look at you. So, what do you say? Does he…hire out his services?”

  She lingered long enough that we both knew she wasn’t talking about stripping.

  But instead of sinking to her level, I stepped aside and gestured. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go ask? He’s right over there…talking to Aunt Agatha.”

  The first few words were all she processed for a moment, and the cat’s smile came, brightening her eyes.

  Then she heard…Aunt Agatha.

  She sucked in a breath, stopped when she realized I was waiting for her reaction. “You left him with that old hag? Talk about a man-eater.”

  “What’s the matter, honey? Jealous?” I asked. “Go on…go talk to him.”

  She turned on a toothpick heel that sank into the ground and stalked off. We both knew she’d never do anything that might even resemble confronting somebody near Aunt Agatha. The woman was a lioness, and you had to have a spine to deal with her.

  I managed to get Aunt Agatha’s drink – and one for me – without too much additional drama, and I got back to find her and Kaleb laughing as if they’d known each other for ages. It was enough to make me smile, and I turned Aunt Agatha’s drink over to her as I sat down next to him, leaning against him without thinking about it.

  “Hmmm…” Aunt Agatha made a low noise as she sipped from her drink, one that had me sliding her a narrow look.

  “What’s that for?”

  “Oh, nothing. Nothing.” She waved a hand at me and took another sip, looking rather…pleased with herself. “I just thought I had this whole mess figured out, and you just went and dashed it all to bits, that’s all.”

  “What mess?” I took Kaleb’s hand, hoping nobody was around to hear. “We’re not a couple of specimens sitting on a slide in your lab, Aunt Agatha.” She’d worked for a biological research facility for years after her husband passed away, choosing science over pursuing a family. A rather strange idea for a woman of her time, she’d once told me.

  “Everything is a specimen, in a way.” She reached out, one hand extended.

  I took hers, and she squeezed my fingers. “Go on, now, Piety.” She smiled at me and let go. “Mingle and make sure you kiss that sexy Aussie of yours a time or two. Shock the hell out of that stodgy old nephew of mine.”

  I blushed at the thought of kissing Kaleb – or anybody else – in front of my father.

  “Enjoy the rest of your day, Aunt Agatha,” I said.

  “You too, darling.”

  As we lost ourselves in the crowd, I hooked my arm through his. “What did you think of her?”

  “She doesn’t seem to fit.” He glanced down at me. “A lot like you.”

  I laughed, delighted. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever received. Thank you.”

  “That’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?” We’d reached the stone balustrade that separated the wide terrace from the landscape. There, we stopped, leaned against it, and looked back over the crowd. Some of them weren’t paying us any attention. Others were good at pretending not to.

  But some didn’t even try. I ran out of fingers counting the ones who weren’t being subtle about their interest in us.

  “Look at everybody here. I didn’t have too many role models growing up.” I shrugged, swirl
ing my straw through my drink. “It’s not that any of them are…well, bad people. But they have a certain view of the world that doesn’t fit with mine. Is it any wonder that I clicked with Aunt Agatha?”

  “No.” He dipped his head.

  He was going to kiss my cheek.

  Whether it was because so many were still making little effort to hide their interest, or because so many were making little effort to hide their disdain, I don’t know. But I turned my head just slightly so that his lips brushed my mouth instead of my cheek.

  He paused, hesitated.

  Against his lips, I whispered, “Kiss me.”

  And he did.

  It wasn’t a deep, I’m gonna make you naked, kiss. But it was far from chaste.

  And when he looked back at me, my heart was pounding, my throat was dry…and I was ready to make him naked.

  Night wrapped around us in a cool, dark embrace by the time we finally reached my room. It wasn’t that it had taken forever to get home. It had just taken forever to get from the elevator to the door, then across the living room and finally to here.

  There was a breadcrumb trail of clothing marking our progress and later, much later, I’d be a little embarrassed because no doubt Astra would see it and tease me.

  But for now, all I could think was that he wasn’t completely naked yet, and he wasn’t inside me.

  Fumbling with his belt, I leaned against the wall as he reached under my skirt and yanked at my panties.

  “Open your mouth, Piety,” he said against my lips. “Open…damn it, can’t get enough.”

  I laughed shakily, thinking the same thing.

  He caught my lower lip and bit down. At the same time, he caught my hips and lifted up. I wrapped my legs around him and arched, pulling him against me.

  I was already wet, slick and ready for him.

  He was hard, and the head of his cock passed over me, once, twice…

  I gasped, shivering in sensation as he teased me. “Stop it,” I demanded. This time, I was the one doing the biting.

  “What…stop this?” He slowed his movements and eased back until we barely touched.

  “No!” I buried my hands in his hair and pulled, arching closer. If I could have urged him inside me by sheer force of will, I would have. Whimpering and wiggling, I moved closer.

  “So…you want this?” He moved back to me and began to pass back and forth over my clitoris, taunting, teasing.

  “I want you in me. I want…you.”

  His eyes met mine.

  There was something utterly raw about it as he sank into me. Something too intimate, more than sex. I wanted to look away, but I didn’t dare.

  “Have me then. And I’ll have you.”

  We kissed each other as he began to rock against me, slow, subtle moves that barely counted as thrusts, but I felt every nuance of him, every stroke.

  And when I came, it was so, so sweet…

  Sixteen

  Kaleb

  The world looked terribly small from thousands of feet up in the air.

  I guess it only made sense.

  The weird thing was how small I felt, how isolated.

  For the first time in a week, I was alone with nothing more than my own thoughts in my head, and I didn’t like it.

  I’d spent most of my life alone, so this shouldn’t be anything new. It shouldn’t be anything different. And yet…

  And yet…

  The checks Piety had given me burned a hole in my pocket. There was no way this plane could land soon enough. I’d done what I had to help Camry, but part of me wished Camry had never been in the picture – and I hated that part of myself.

  Hated it, and hated that it was growing bigger and bigger.

  For a few days, I hadn’t had to worry about taking care of my sister or anybody else.

  Oh, the worry had been inside me, rubbing around like an annoying bug, but I wasn’t constantly forced to watch my back, or wonder when she’d show up or if I’d hear from her – or the cops.

  Now it was all rushing back and what I wanted to do was board the first flight back to Philadelphia so I could see Piety again.

  But I had responsibilities – a sister to take care of.

  I didn’t have time to dream about something that never would have worked out anyway.

  But I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like when she came back to annul the marriage. I had to handle Camry first, but then I’d see her again. See her and…

  Let her go.

  The words made something ugly and hot fester inside me, and I admitted to myself that at some time during the past week, a part of me had begun to wish this whole thing was real. At least a part of me wanted the chance to make it real.

  So, yeah, we didn’t know each other all that well – we hadn’t had that chance. But everything I knew about her, I liked. I wanted the chance to know more, and I wanted…everything. A little more of everything when it came to Piety.

  And that wasn’t going to happen.

  Closing my eyes, I dropped my head back onto the padded headrest just as one of the airline attendants came by and offered a cocktail. Piety had done everything first class – including booking my trip back to Las Vegas. I had a wide, comfortable seat, and I’d already been given a snack and offered wine or a premium beverage. I’d declined both.

  When she asked again, I requested scotch, and when she started to name the offerings, I just shook my head and asked for the best.

  A few minutes later, something smooth and powerful was gliding down my throat, and I silently toasted the woman who was my wife for a few more days.

  Once the scotch was gone, I closed my eyes and put her out of my mind.

  I had to move on.

  All that mattered was Camry.

  “Have you got the money?”

  The man on the other end of the line made me want to do something brutal, ugly, and violent.

  I managed to keep that desire out of my voice as I responded. “That’s why I’m calling. When can we meet?”

  “Well…” Stefano drew the word out.

  I already knew he would try to make it seem like he was doing me a favor. Bastard. If I could put my fist all the way through his face when I saw him, I would.

  But I already knew that would just cause more problems for Camry.

  She’d gotten herself hooked up with a crook like Stefano, and she’d outdone herself. He wasn’t the first asshole she’d hooked up with, but he was, by far, the worst. He sold drugs and flesh, and while he might not be the one to get his hands dirty, he didn’t like being double-crossed either. I’d been doing my research on him, the best I could. Law enforcement had tried to arrest him more than once, but the piece of shit kept slipping free.

  No, the best chance was to just get Camry away.

  “I think we can make something happen tonight. You bring that money, pretty boy, you hear me?” Stefano said.

  “I hear you.”

  He named a place and hung up. I shoved my phone into my pocket and stood there, staring at nothing. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and my gut was raw. I didn’t like this, didn’t like any of it.

  But what the hell could I do otherwise?

  There was an air of desperation to the place. Even the dancers strutting up and down the stage looked just this shade of panicked, like a mouse caught in a trap or cornered by a cat, a particularly cruel one that wanted nothing more than to play with its food.

  When Stefano glanced at one of the girls on the stage, she put a little more heart into her act. I could have sworn I saw her hands start to shake.

  I wanted to grab her off the stage and give her my shirt – and a damn sandwich. She was so skinny, her ribs showed, and her hipbones jutted out against her skin. She looked like she hadn’t had a good meal in weeks, or longer.

  “Like that one, do you?” Stefano gave me a leering smile.

  The asshole was almost as tall as me and muscular, the kind of guy who liked to stare a
t his muscles as he worked out and flexed, if I had to make a guess.

  He looked about the way I thought he would, dark eyes, dark hair, and a sleazy smile that made me think he’d been born straight out of a grease trap.

  Everything about him was slimy.

  “Tell you what,” he continued. “You can have her for the night. A freebie. Once we wrap up business.”

  Just the suggestion made me feel dirty.

  “I don’t think so.” I met his dark brown eyes. “I don’t need to pay a woman to have sex with me.”

  A muscle pulsed in his cheek.

  Should have kept my mouth shut.

  But he just smiled. “Sometimes we all like it a little wild, you know. Just thought I’d give you the offer. My girls will do anything.”

  I looked past his shoulder, staring at the woman on the stage. “Yeah. I see that.” Then I met his gaze and put the envelope down on the table. “Here. The money you say Camry owes. Now, take me to her so I can get her out of this stinky place.”

  He laughed. “So you want to save your sister. What makes you so sure she wants to be saved?” He took the envelope and started to count. I shifted restlessly in the chair, thinking about the other two grand I kept on the side. It would be enough, I hoped, to put the two of us up in a hotel for a little while so I could find a decent job, see about getting her help–

  “You’re short.”

  I shot him a narrow look. “No. I’m not. I counted it twice. You said she owed you ten grand. That’s ten grand.”

  “Ten grand is just for the drug debt.” Stefano lifted a shoulder. “But if she goes with you, I’ll lose another ten grand easy – just within the first few weeks. She’s a favorite. Won’t be easy to replace her.”

  “You arrogant–” Coming out of the chair, I slammed my hands down on the table, glaring down at him.

  He smirked, his eyes flicking left then right.

  I knew without looking that some of his goons had come up and surrounded us. Arse. The fucking arse. I was tempted to beat him shitless just for existing.

  But Camry needed me.

  “You got this easy enough,” Stefano said, smacking the envelope against his hand.