by Christa Wick
He arched a sardonic brow. "I hope that's not your opening line."
Keeping a scowl from my face, I returned to staring out the window. "I still say we should have intercepted her at the Ritz."
Beside me, Jake snorted. "She's not a football, bro. She won't allow you to catch her mid-air and haul her back to Chicago. She sees you outside her hotel and it will be another three days before we find her again -- if we find her again."
Unconvinced, I folded my arms across my chest and stared at the darkly colored glass that separated us from the limo driver.
"She can't run if we catch her at King's office. She'll have to maintain her composure and you'll get a chance to talk to her while I divert King."
I growled as he said the old man's name again.
"Don't get pissy with me," Jake warned. "You should have told him to get fucked when he called about the renewal project. Instead, you pushed Jo-Jo right in front of him."
Swiveling my head just enough to see Jake out of one eye, I glared at him. "You think he called me about the project?"
Jake shook his head. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking about how sly that old bastard is."
Neither had I.
I should have sensed King was behind the call. But six years had passed since his daughter's death. He hadn't made a move against me or the company in three. His health had deteriorated in the meantime -- unless his illness was nothing more than an act.
Just like the rest of his life -- his empire, his happy family, the joy he took in his little girl...
The joy he took from her...
My stomach squeezed at last night's dinner.
"We can't prove a thing," Jake said, as if reading my mind. "He'll never spend a day in jail now that Linsey's in the grave and can't testify against him."
Linsey King...
I shifted in my seat, the limo suddenly too hot and seemingly devoid of oxygen. The King girl had been in love with me. I hadn't felt the same. She had come to Chicago from Boston and looked me up because my mother's family and hers had a long history. I'd spent summers at camp with her older cousins, seen her at a few lawn parties as she matured.
In terms of having a woman on my arm at social events among the country's elite, she served a purpose. I kept waiting for her to move on, ignoring her looks much as I had ignored Joey's. Only difference being that Joey's gaze wrapped around my cock like a soft, warm hand and her smile put a bounce in my step at the end of a long day.
I had not intended to hurt Linsey, but I also had not cared whether I did.
The fallout from my mistake had been devastating.
Jake's career over, his name dragged through the tabloids. Linsey on a coroner's table, her body cold and uncaring as the examiner catalogued her injuries.
Snapped neck...
Broken ribs...
Vaginal scarring...
Evidence of--
Lowering my window, I stuck my head out of the limo and vomited.
"Here." Cracking the seal on a bottle of water, Jake handed it to me. "Nothing is going to happen to Jo-Jo. I have a plan--"
"So do I," I barked.
"Mine doesn't involve you in jail for killing him--"
"So far, I don't like your plan, little brother."
"What if it means ruining King?" he asked.
I turned in time to see a grin birth its way across his face. I smiled back.
"Have your attention now, do I?" His grin cracked wider, but then he held his hand up, stopping me from asking for details as we pulled up in front of King's building.
I glanced at my watch. It was ten past nine.
"Don't push her if she doesn't want to talk to yet," Jake warned as he stepped out of the limo ahead of me.
I said nothing. Better not to make the promise than to break it.
"I'm serious," he pressed as we entered the building.
"I know..." My tongue stalled as I saw Marjolein. She wore a dark navy skirt that fell almost to her ankles. A blazer of the same color covered her white dress shirt, trapping her full breasts and darting at the waist to accentuate the lush curve of her hips.
Worried as I was, my cock's reaction was the same as it had been for the last twenty-one months. Hard, at attention, straining in her direction until Jake pressed his palm against my shoulder and guided me toward the chairs next to the main reception desk.
Leaving me to stare at Marjolein across the room as she filled out some kind of paperwork attached to the clipboard she held, my little brother approached the receptionist.
"Tell Mr. King that Jake Kehoe is here to see him."
Joey's head jerked up, her blue eyes wide as she looked at the desk and Jake before inching slowly in my direction. Heat kissed her cheeks the moment she saw me. Her lips formed an unvoiced swear word.
Naughty word for such a sweet thing to say.
For a second, I forgot my overarching need to protect her from King. In that second, I saw Marjolein across my lap, wearing that red hot leather one piece Riona had sent. Her bottom was as rosy as her cheeks, the print of my palm momentarily flushing the pale surface.
A swat for the word she had just uttered under her breath.
Another swat for leaving my bed.
"Focus," Jake warned, coming to stand beside me while he waited for King.
I flicked my eyes at him before returning my attention to Marjolein. I pushed the image of her submitting to me out of my head. I had denied myself for so long because she wasn't meant for that lifestyle, especially the more austere form I favored.
A too short skirt and thin legs interrupted my view as the receptionist stepped in front of Joey. The woman bent at the waist as she leaned in to say something. I couldn't hear the words or see Joey's face.
I shifted seats, but the woman had moved away and was approaching Jake. She practically purred as she told him that Mr. King would see him now. I waited until they were clear of the area before standing.
Joey jumped to her feet, her lovely blue eyes shooting flames in my direction. I took my first step forward and she gave a jagged shake of her head. I crossed the distance between us anyway.
"Jake said you wouldn't make a scene," I murmured. "Was he right?"
Her plump bottom lip disappeared behind her top teeth. The nostrils of her pert nose flared.
I took the seat she had just vacated, the back of my thighs warming from the residual heat of her body. Unable to stop myself, I snagged her hand and rubbed my thumb lightly against the inward side of her wrist.
"I would tell you Maxwell King is a dangerous man, but I don't think you'd take my word for anything right now."
A sharp glance at me over her shoulder confirmed her low opinion.
"What happened in Miami--"
She jerked her hand from me, marched to the receptionist's desk and slammed the clipboard down. From there, she proceeded to the magazine rack and pretended to examine the selection of reading material. I knew she only pretended because the slightest movement on my part had her head whipping in my direction.
My phone buzzed in my pocket as the receptionist returned. The pattern of the buzz told me it was my private work email. The urgent one. I didn't care. I would retire that instant if I could leave King's building holding Joey's hand.
"Coffee, black," I said as I passed the receptionist on my way to the magazine rack. Seeing Joey snatch a Car and Driver issue without looking before storming away from the rack, I grinned. I picked some senior living type magazine and followed after her.
"Stay away," she hissed under her breath.
"You're flustered," I observed with a nod at her reading choice. "Is that because you're mad or are you remembering how I made you come five times?"
I paused, my gaze rolling toward the ceiling as I recounted our evening together before I nailed her with a stare. "Or was it six?"
The truth burned bright across her cheeks -- the answer was both.
Her full breasts bobbed from her rapid intake of air. Small beads of perspira
tion pearled against her brow. Her absolutely gorgeous ass squirmed in the seat with her need to flee from me again.
"I'm willing to give you time to get over being mad at me," I offered as I watched the receptionist return with my coffee. "I'll pay you so you don't need to work for King."
Joey waited while the receptionist dipped low to hand me my cup, the woman's cleavage bouncing in front of my face. Ignoring the clearly augmented bounty spread before me, I looked at Joey. Her lips rolled together, the words just waiting for the receptionist to be out of ear shot before Joey unleashed on me.
"My landlord doesn't deal in sapphires," she said then snapped her magazine open.
"Ouch..."
Her head swiveled mercilessly in my direction. "Don't play the wounded lover with me. I don't care how guilty you feel about..."
Words failed her for an instant. The lips started mashing against one another once more.
"Fucking you?" I whispered. That wasn't what had happened, but I knew she would accept no other term. She nodded, her eyes beginning to sparkle with the threat of tears.
My phone vibrated with another email message.
Joey glared at me as if she expected me to check my phone, to choose the device and whoever sent the message over her. Like everything else wrong with this reunion, her expectation was my fault. I had pretended interest in hundreds of things to avoid looking at her. Project ledgers, my phone, other women.
Placing my cup on the side table, I gripped the edge of my chair.
Long minutes passed in complete silence, except for the occasional buzz of email. Apparently, some part of my business was falling apart as well.
"You can't not answer that," Joey whispered.
I blinked, considered a reply, suppressed it.
If this was love, I could do without the experience. I had thought worrying over Riona or watching Jake get wheeled into surgery was painful. The idea that I would never get another chance with Joey twisted my gut in ways I had never felt.
I don't know how many minutes passed as I ineffectually waited next to her, but Jake finally returned with King at his side. My little brother handed me a sheet of paper. Two signatures, his and King's, rested at the bottom along with the day's date.
An offer to buy, subject to due diligence, King's overseas European operations. Underlined, a paragraph detailing that King could not hire current or recent Kehoe employees during the negotiation period.
That meant Marjolein, even if no names were listed.
The receptionist appeared at Jake's elbow, holding a photocopy fresh off the printer. Jake nodded for her to hand it to me. I read it.
King's build and zoning permissions for Geneva.
I lifted a brow at my brother, my attention roughly split between him and Marjolein as King coaxed her to the side of the reception area.
Jake fished his phone from his jacket, thumbed through a couple of pages then showed me the display. An email from our Zurich project manager, Jake and me copied, saying zoning approval had been rescinded. The mystery of my vibrating phone was solved. The timestamp on the email was only fifteen minutes before.
My gaze flicked to Marjolein, my gut wrenching as King leaned close to whisper something to her. I turned back to Jake. "You think he's behind the Zurich rescission?"
He nodded.
With a bow to Joey and a wave to Jake, King disappeared down the hall.
Jake gave me a curt stay command as he approached Joey.
She didn't wait for him to reach her before she blurted, "I'm not coming back."
"Jo-Jo, you wanted to talk to me." His hands came up in a calming gesture. "You made this decision, which was yours to make, without talking to me. All I want is the conversation you asked for."
Folding her arms across her chest, she shook her head. Her gaze jumped between me and my little brother. Jake stopped in front of her. My chest tightened as I saw her bottom lip quiver. The trembling wasn't from anger, it was hurt, a sense of betrayal over the morning's events.
"Are you going to buy the next place that interviews me, too?" she asked.
Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Give me a chance to explain while I take you back to your hotel."
She tensed but didn't brush him off. When he tried to lead her toward the door, she stood firm, her gaze slicing through me.
"Just you and me, Jo-Jo," he assured her. "Dylan will catch a cab."
Her shoulders slumped and I knew she would at least allow Jake to talk to her on the drive to the Ritz. Maybe she would even listen. I prayed she would.
I followed a couple of yards behind them as they exited the building. My heart hammered in my chest. My muscles bunched together and refused to relax. I wanted her leaving with me.
Instead, I stood there, all my power stripped from me as I watched my future climb into the back of the waiting limo and drive away.
#####THE END#####
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Copyright content © 2014 by Christa Wick
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. All persons and entities are fictional or fictitiously used. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the express written permission from the author/publisher.
Table of Contents
About THC-Boston
Training Her Curves - Boston
Dylan
Pesky Legal Junk