The Man Who Has No Heart

by Victoria Quinn

  I lifted my gaze and looked at her. “How did you manage that? Who did you know?”

  “Actually, I didn’t know anybody. But I told them who Derek’s father was…”

  I felt my cheeks get a little warm.

  “And they were happy to make an exception.” She smiled at me, like she could see the slight embarrassment in my eyes. “It’s one of the top three best schools in the entire country, public and private. This may give Valerie another incentive to move here since Derek will get the best education possible…on your dime.”

  I didn’t mind paying for it.

  “It’s just a few blocks away, so you can get to him easily…or I could get to him.” She left the papers beside me. “This is all the information about the school if you’re interested, but I know it’s the best. My other clients told me about it…that was how I found out about it. A hundred percent of their students go to an Ivy League school…every single one.”

  I stared at the paper before I lifted my gaze. “I don’t care if Derek goes to college or not. I want him to do whatever he wants. Some of the most brilliant minds in the world don’t have a college education. But I’d like him to get the best education possible right now, since this age is critical for his development.”

  “Exactly.” She grabbed another paper from her folder. “I also found her a very nice condo just a few blocks away. It’s got everything she could want—a private gym, a chauffeur company that operates on-site, and lots of rich, eligible bachelors.”

  “The last one will give her the biggest incentive.”

  She chuckled. “It’s a safe building with twenty-four surveillance, so Derek will be safe there. There’s also a yoga studio right across the street.”

  Cleo had Valerie pinned down pretty well. “I think we’re jumping ahead.”

  “Just wanted to show you what I’ve been working on. I think I’m gonna call her tomorrow and invite her for a visit…unless you think it’s best if you call her.”

  I closed my eyes for a second, full of dread.

  She watched me, her lips pressed together in a delicate frown.

  “I’ll do it.” I needed to make amends for the way I’d screamed at her. If Cleo called, the offer wouldn’t seem genuine. She wouldn’t go for it.

  “I think that’s the best idea too.” She closed her folder. “There’s something I need to tell you. I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t want to stir the pot…”

  I stared at her.

  “When I dropped off Derek, she threatened me a little bit…”

  Both of my eyebrows furrowed.

  “Said I needed to keep my hands off you.”

  I’d never become so angry so quickly. My hand covered my forehead while my nostrils flared with the deep breath I released. “Jesus fucking Christ…” I dragged my hand down and stared at the table.

  “I told her I was seeing Tucker, even though I had stopped seeing him at the time.”

  I lifted my chin and looked at her.

  “And that calmed her down.”

  I hated Valerie for a lot of reasons, but now I hated her for affecting my new relationship. She had been a tyrant in our relationship, slapping me in the face if I didn’t give her what she wanted, and then throwing a fit if I stood too close to a female colleague. She was beautiful—but fucking insecure. She could destroy this relationship, make Cleo’s life so miserable that she wouldn’t want to stay.

  That fucking scared me.

  I turned away and looked at the table again, my palms pressed together and resting against my forehead while my elbows leaned on the table.

  “Deacon?”

  I was quiet for a long time, like I needed a few moments to decompress. I dropped my hands and straightened again.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m just worried…”

  She waited for me to elaborate.

  I stared straight ahead. “I’m afraid if Valerie moves here…she’ll rip us apart.”

  Cleo watched me for a while, the silence continuing.

  “I haven’t told you the details of my marriage, of all the problems we had, but trust me, there’s no line she won’t cross.”

  Her hand moved to mine on the table, and she gently squeezed me. “There’s nothing she could do to chase me away.”

  I’d thought I could be in a loveless marriage forever, but with every passing year, the weight on my shoulders became heavier and heavier…and then my back broke. The same thing might happen with Cleo, the hardship and harassment would stop being worth it.

  “Deacon.”

  I resisted her gaze until I caved. I looked at her.

  “Nothing,” she whispered. “Nothing at all.” She squeezed my hand again.

  I squeezed hers back, my heart weightless now that I’d finally let her in. I’d resisted for so long because I was afraid to go through hell again, but now that she was in my life completely, I felt at peace, like every fear, every doubt had disappeared. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me…and my son.”

  Her eyes softened, staring at me like she never wanted to stop. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me too.” She brought my hands to her lips and kissed the knuckles. “No matter what happens, we stay together.” She repeated my own words back to me. “Alright?”

  I nodded. “Alright.”

  I sat at my desk at my office, going through the stacks of paperwork that needed my attention. All I cared about was the work we were doing, not running the corporation, but since I owned it, I had to take care of it. Having someone else run operations had been suggested, but I didn’t trust anyone else with the company I’d built with my bare hands…and my mind.

  Theresa’s message popped up on my monitor. Cleo is here.

  Send her in. I was in the middle of doing something, but now that didn’t seem important. The woman who made my life shine was about to step into my office, and the piles of paperwork could wait until she left.

  She stepped inside, holding a thick package as well as a reusable bag. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” I got out of my chair and came around the desk to kiss her. I didn’t even give her a chance to put down the items she carried before I moved in and pressed my mouth to hers.

  She melted at my kiss, looking at me through her thick lashes, a slight smile on the lips I’d just kissed. “I never get used to that…” She set the package on the desk along with the bag. “Here’s the papers you asked for. I thought I would bring you lunch too.”

  I’d thought it would be weird to continue to have her serve me, run my life like my assistant, but since it was the foundation of our relationship, it didn’t feel strange at all. It was the premise to our friendship, the way I learned about her, trusted her, without having to risk myself at all. I believed it was the only way I could have let someone in again, and if I’d never moved in to the building, never met Cleo, I would have been alone forever. “Thank you.”

  She took everything out of the bag, revealing cauliflower rice, tofu dumplings coated in breadcrumbs, and some slices of fruit and sautéed veggies. She understood my diet completely, knew I liked to rotate between vegan dishes, fish, and occasionally poultry. “Of course.” She turned back to me, her hands resting at her waist in front of me, behaving professionally even though no one could see us. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “Yes.” She was in a tight gray dress with heels, her hair pinned over one shoulder. I liked the way she looked no matter what she wore, but she looked more beautiful every time I saw her.

  She waited for an answer.

  “I want you to bend over my desk so I can fuck you.” I slid out of my jacket, letting it fall down my arms and to the floor. My hands went to my belt next, getting it loose so I could get to the button and zipper underneath.

  She was still for a moment, her eyes slightly wide because she couldn’t believe the instruction that had just flown out of my mouth. Her breathing picked up right away, her lips slightly parted
so she could get enough air into her lungs.

  When my slacks were loose, I stepped over into her and kissed her hard, my hands immediately yanking up her dress and gripping her cheeks. My fingers kneaded the strong flesh as my lips devoured hers, so anxious to fuck her, as if I hadn’t had her last night.

  She kissed me back, her hands moving to my chest outside my clothes. “What about Theresa?”

  “I don’t give a shit about Theresa.” I pushed Cleo over the front of my desk, her perky ass gorgeous in the natural light. I pulled her pink thong over her ass and shoved myself inside her, flooded with her wetness.

  A moan escaped, and she tried to silence it halfway through, like she’d already forgotten there was someone just outside the door.

  My palms flattened against the desk as I leaned over her, bucking myself into her hard, driving my dick through her tightness, getting utterly lost in this gorgeous woman. My abs rubbed against her perky ass, and I moaned as I fucked her, my balls getting tight almost instantly. My hand tightened on her hair, and I turned her head so I could breathe against her cheek. “This is my office. I can fuck you whenever I goddamn well please.”

  I leaned against my headboard with my hands spanning across her stomach and back. She was so petite in my grasp, her narrow waist so easy for me to squeeze and make my fingertips touch.

  I watched her rise and fall slowly, lifting herself to the top of my dick before she pushed down again. A build-up of cream coated my base as she continued to slather my dick with it every time she moved. My head was tilted back so I could watch her face, the way she bit her bottom lip when my dick hit the right spot. Her nipples were sharp like the points of diamonds, the sexy curve of her tits so sexy.

  I breathed hard as I watched her, not from exertion, just arousal. I’d already come once, and my own come had dripped onto my balls because we kept going, making my dick hard again within thirty seconds.

  Her hands gripped my wrists then brought them to her tits because she liked the way I touched her, the way I squeezed her tits then flicked my thumb over the nipples. She moaned when she felt me, keeping her steady pace up and down my dick.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, fighting the urge to come, fighting the tightness in my balls because I wanted to give her another load. My sex life had been so fucking stale before this. Even when those girls were in my bed, leaving their panties behind on purpose so I wouldn’t forget about them, they were nothing compared to the woman on top of me, the woman who had my soul wrapped around her finger.

  Her hands went to my shoulders, and she leaned forward slightly, arching her back as she ground her clit against my pelvic bone. She moaned in my face as she came, not afraid to show me how she wanted to get off. Her tits rested in my palms as she grinded, her sexy moans echoing in my bedroom, erasing the memory of anyone who had ever been there before. She started to slow, catching her breath as her nails withdrew from my flesh.

  My shoulders and back were always covered with little scratches. I spotted them in the mirror sometimes, and I liked the way they looked, liked reliving the way I received them. My hands slid across her stomach to her ass, and I gripped her sexy cheeks, pulling them apart with my fingertips.

  She straightened again and placed her hands over mine, arching her back more, making her tits stick out, and she started to bounce, her hair sticking to the sweat on her neck and shoulders. She knew she’d make me come like this, make me come hard.

  I bit down on my lower lip as I hit the finish line. A deep moan came from my throat, my cock exploding inside her already wet pussy. My fingertips dug into her deeper, directing her through the final pumps. Sex felt brand-new because I’d never had this experience before. I hadn’t worn a condom with my ex once she got the birth control shot, but we’d never made love like this, never had several orgasms in one session. With Valerie, it was all about getting off and moving on. This was about taking it slow, turning sex into a marathon, connecting on a deeper level.

  It was so fucking good.

  She stopped on top of me, our bodies still locked together, her come and mine mixed together. She ran her fingers through her hair and ground slightly into me, moaning like she could feel my come drip to her entrance.

  Jesus, she was sexy.

  She slowly raised herself, pulling off of me, and the come started to drip right away.

  I didn’t care if it made a mess all over me.

  She rolled off and went into the bathroom to clean up.

  I stayed put, my wet dick lying against me, my head turned toward the windows on the city.

  When she came back, she gave me some tissue to clean off.

  I wiped myself off and tossed the dirty tissue on the nightstand.

  She got comfortable against me, her arm over my waist, her head against my chest. Her eyes were directed out the window too. “What a view…”

  My hands slid up the back of her neck and into her hair.

  She lay there with me, letting the silence wrap around us.

  Ever since she and I got together weeks ago, I hadn’t been sleeping as much. I was up late every night, making love to her, sometimes fucking her, but my productivity had improved, probably because the sexual satisfaction steadied my nerves and gave me pleasurable chemicals that improved my mood and concentration.

  Minutes later, she sat up, running her fingers through her hair to pull it from her face.

  I switched my gaze to her face, knowing she had something to say, but it was hard to focus on her mouth when her tits looked incredible.

  “I don’t want to talk about this, but…”

  I waited.

  “You haven’t called her…and I know it’s not because you’ve forgotten.”

  Like I could ever forget.

  She watched me.

  “I’ll do it tomorrow,” I whispered.

  She didn’t argue. “Alright.” She moved back into me, her hand on my waist, her eyes closed.

  Now I watched her lie against me, watched her instead of the city right outside my window.

  I sat on the couch in my office, where Derek had worked on his model. He hadn’t finished it, his pieces still there. I told him we would work on it when he returned. We hadn’t spoken in a while, and I suspected Valerie had something to do with that.

  Thinking about him helped me get over the hurdle. Sometimes I forgot why I was doing this, but when I pictured my son’s face, I remembered he was the most important thing in the world. I didn’t want Valerie anywhere near Cleo, but I couldn’t live without my son…regardless of how happy Cleo made me.

  I made the call.

  It rang a long time, like she would let it go to voice mail.

  But she answered—aggressively. “If you’re calling to get Derek—”

  “I just want to talk about us.” I’d known she would be pissed, but I hadn’t anticipated that wrath. She immediately went after the one thing I cared about, holding him hostage like he was leverage—not a fucking person.

  She turned quiet right away, as if I’d said the one thing she wanted to talk about.

  “Look…I’m sorry I blew up at you.” I didn’t mean a fucking word of it. Sometimes I wished I could be like other men, just forget about their kid and move on, but I really loved my son…so fucking much. I wanted to be a father, to provide for him, spend time with him…watch him grow into a man. “I thought we were building a new relationship, and then you caught me off guard.”

  “Building a new relationship?”

  “As friends. As partners. Valerie, I want us to get along.” I would never consider her a friend. She was just the uterus that grew my son.

  “Don’t friends ask each other stuff?”

  Yes. But they didn’t interrogate each other about who they slept with. Her questions weren’t caused by mere curiosity. She had an agenda. It was so fucking obvious, and not just because she’d threatened my girl.

  I wished Cleo had punched her in the face.

  “Yes,” I finally answered. “B
ut I think it’s best if we leave our personal lives out of the conversation. I’m sure you’ve moved on, but I don’t want to hear about it.”

  “Then don’t ask,” she said simply. “But Cleo is making a big impression on our son, and I deserve to know what her purpose is in his life.”

  She didn’t give a damn. If she really cared about being a good mother, she would do a lot of things differently. Sometimes I wondered if she really loved him or she just used him as a pawn. I tried not to believe that, because it would kill me. I wanted her to love our son the way I did…because Derek deserved that. “I’ve already told you Cleo is my personal assistant. She’s the woman who runs my life. She’s the one who helped me buy the cabin, who set up the cabin, and who does a million things for me in between. She helps me with Derek too, getting the things he needs when I’m busy working. She’s great with him.” It made me sick to describe her like that, like she was just some servant…not family. When the three of us were together, it felt right, like it’d always been the three of us. I wanted to be honest, to say that Cleo was the best thing that ever happened to me, that she was slowly erasing the hidden scars that no one could see.

  “And you aren’t sleeping with her?”

  My hand tightened into a fist. “I don’t understand the question, Valerie. You said you deserve to know who’s spending time with your son. Cleo is spending a lot of time with your son. Whether she’s fucking me or not doesn’t change their interaction.”

  “Why won’t you answer the question?”

  I hated lying. It was the most unnatural thing in the world. I actually had to force my brain to override the urge, because lying was a direct contradiction to nature, data, purpose. And it was even harder since I didn’t want to hide my commitment because it was so disloyal to Cleo. “No.”

  Valerie was quiet, knowing I never lied, but probably still suspicious.