by M. Malone
“Why don’t I cook us breakfast? It’s faster which means we can come back to bed faster.” She squealed when he leaned down to blow kisses on her belly.
“That sounds amazing. I can’t cook otherwise I’d help. But it’s probably best for everyone’s safety if I stay out of the kitchen.”
She walked over to the other side of the bed and retrieved her dress. After yanking it over her head, she winked at him.
“Uh huh. That sounds like a really convenient excuse to get out of doing any work. But I’ll let you slide this time.”
“Just–” King stopped when his phone rang. They both looked around trying to identify where it was coming from. Olivia eventually found it in the closet in the pocket of his suit jacket but the call had already gone to voicemail.
“Thank you, angel. It’s probably just my parents or something.”
She kissed him on the forehead. “You handle that and then come out to the kitchen when you’re ready. I plan on eating fast.”
His laugh followed her as she left the room.
When King saw that he had fifteen missed calls, his brain immediately went into crisis mode. Not that many people had his personal cell phone number and none of them were stupid enough to blow up his phone without good cause.
His worry lessened only slightly when he saw that all of the calls were from James. He sighed. The deal they’d been working on must have hit a snag. Over the past few weeks he’d delegated more and more work to James and his friend had covered for him. However, he couldn’t continue to live in his Olivia-bubble forever.
Especially if something had gone wrong with the AliCorp deal.
“James. What’s up?”
“I need you to promise that you won’t lose it.”
King wasn’t in the mood for games. James had a tendency to make every situation into a fire. He usually just let him talk and get it out of his system but he usually didn’t have a beautiful woman in his kitchen cooking him breakfast. If it was a competition between his friend’s weekly bitch session and eating breakfast with Olivia, there was no contest.
“Just tell me what the hell is going on?”
James groaned. “It’s about Georgie.”
“What do you mean? Is she okay? Where is she?”
King could hear the growl in his own voice. Damn it, he’d been so self-involved lately that he hadn’t pushed his sister to tell him what was wrong. If something had happened to her because he was so wrapped up in Olivia he would never forgive himself.
“She’s fine and she’s at home, now.”
There was a curious emphasis on the last word that caught King’s attention. “What do you mean now? Where was she before?”
James sighed. “I found her wandering around Club Prestige. I almost didn’t recognize her at first. She was dressed… differently.”
King couldn’t hear anything after that, the blood rushing to his head so fast he had an instant headache. His sister had been at Club Prestige? Not only did that introduce mental images that made him want to bleach his brain but it also made him wonder how the hell she’d known about the club? Was it possible that Georgie had followed him there? It was too big of a coincidence to be believed.
He bent over and put his head between his knees. Had his sister paid for a membership to Club Prestige also? She’d come into her trust fund once she hit twenty-one so she could definitely afford it. Or was this done at her fiance’s request?
King ground his teeth.
Was the bastard forcing his sister to accompany him while he looked at strippers? He knew it was contradictory since he and James frequented the club but he’d never claimed to be a good guy. He sure as hell didn’t want his sister with a guy like him. She deserved way better than that.
“I’m going to kill Alex,” he snapped into the phone. “Find that fucker and let me know where he is.”
“Um, King? Alex wasn’t with her. Not that I saw anyway. It was just Georgie. Wandering around the Fantasy Room wearing this low-cut–”
“James!”
“Sorry. I didn’t… Whatever, the point is that she was there alone. I don’t think Alex knows anything about this because she asked me not to tell anyone. She definitely didn’t want me to tell you.”
“Of course she didn’t want you to tell me because she knows she shouldn’t have been there! Look, I’ll take care of everything. I’ll talk to Georgie and find out what the hell is going on. She probably saw us going there or heard something about it and didn’t know what kind of place it was.”
“Right. But I just have one question,” James interjected, catching King right before he would have hung up. In his mind, now that he understood the problem, he was ready to tackle the solution. Number one on his list, procure a chastity belt to keep his little sister safe from the perverts of the world.
“What’s that?”
“When I first found her, she kept saying it was okay because Olivia knew she was there. She was three sheets to the wind so I could only understand half of what she was saying. But I’m still not sure what that means. Who the hell is Olivia?”
King’s mouth fell open. “She said Olivia told her about the club?”
“Yeah, I guess. That’s what it sounded like. Who is that anyway?”
“Fuck!”
King almost threw the phone. All this time he’d assumed that Olivia was so different, that she wasn’t the type to scheme or plot. Now he found out that the entire time she’d been cozying up to his sister and worse, pulling her into things that Georgie was in no way equipped to handle.
If she thought that being BFFs with his sister was the way to get him to settle down then she’d miscalculated.
“Do you remember that night at Club Prestige? When I said that I’d found my bride?”
“Wait, you actually went through with that?”
James didn’t say anything but King could just imagine what he was thinking. That King had been led around by the nose by a woman who was probably manipulating him and his sister.
The thought sent his blood pressure through the roof.
“So she’s the reason you’ve been so distracted lately?” James didn’t bother to conceal his annoyance.
“Yes, James. This is what we need to worry about right now, that I’ve been fucking a stripper hoping to piss off my parents.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice. “Look, I’ll take care of this. This is my problem. But there’s no way I’m going to have Georgie’s reputation ruined because someone sees her at some trashy club.”
“Got it. But King don’t expect Georgie to be happy to see you. She was pretty pissed when I pulled her out of there last night.”
“I bet she was.”
King looked up and his fingers clenched around the phone. Olivia stood in the doorway, a spatula in her hand and devastation written across her face.
“James, I have to go.”
He hung up but didn’t move otherwise. There was no reason to ask how much she’d heard because her face told the whole story. Regret wrapped him up like a hand around his throat but just as quickly he pushed the sensation away. She was the one who’d lied and schemed behind his back.
He looked away. Olivia’s soft sniffle carried across the room to where he sat as if he was right next to her.
“Your eggs are ready.” She dropped the spatula that she held and left the room.
King didn’t move when she walked away. He held still as the front door slammed. He didn’t even move when his phone rang again about ten minutes later.
He stayed in that position for a long time, trying in vain to feel anything at all.
CHAPTER TWELVE
For the next few days, Olivia went about her regular routine as if nothing had changed. She went to work, she went to the gym and she came home and went to bed. Even when a member complained because she’d taken down the wrong theme for their event, Olivia couldn’t muster the energy to care.
Her emotions had just shut down completely. She was scared to care about
anything because then her heart would have to accept that she was in love with an asshole.
As she walked into the elevator at Club Prestige, she took a deep breath. What the hell was she supposed to do now? It hurt so much to find out that King was using her as… what? A chance to see if Latina girls were as spicy as he’d heard? Slumming it with a girl he saw as no better than “the help”?
How could she have been so utterly wrong about him?
Then there was the matter of Bennett. He’d left her a message confirming that he’d see her that weekend for the Mentor Science award ceremony. In the midst of everything that had happened, she’d totally forgotten about it.
That was probably a blessing in disguise. She’d been so stupidly in love with King that she would have canceled her date with Bennett if she’d remembered. Even though she would never be the kind of woman who ditched her friends just because she had a boyfriend, she wouldn’t have felt right going to the dinner with Bennett if she was seriously involved with someone. Now it didn’t matter.
She should be happy. Now that King had shown his true colors, she could focus on her date with Bennett, the perfect guy. But how could she when she couldn’t stop thinking about Mr. Totally Wrong for Her?
Olivia stopped in front of the doors leading to the street. What was the point of even going home right now? She might as well hang out a little longer, maybe have a drink. She doubled back and used her access key to take the elevator to the third floor of the club, The Martini Room. Redd nodded from behind the bar as she walked up. Even though she was one of the owners of the club, she regularly filled in to give her bartenders a break.
Olivia secretly thought she liked the attention being behind the bar brought her. The brown-skinned, auburn haired woman had to know she was a knockout.
“Hey, Redd. Can I have a gin and tonic?”
Redd raised her eyebrows. “Hitting it hard tonight, huh?”
She laughed. The bartender was used to making her girly drinks or giving her the virgin type of cocktail. But tonight, Olivia needed something a little stronger. She didn’t mind grabbing a cab to get home.
“It’s been that kind of week.”
She watched as Redd mixed the drink and pushed it across the bar toward her.
“Let me get whatever she’s having,” a voice declared over her shoulder.
Olivia turned and then smiled genuinely at her partner, Serena. The pretty brunette was always so bubbly. Even though she was an accountant, she’d had the idea to bring a Strippers for Beginners series of classed to the club that was really fun.
“It’s good to see you out! You’ve been scarce lately.” Serena gave her a quick, one-armed hug.
“Yeah, I’ve been busy.”
“What?”
She had to repeat herself twice before Serena heard her over the music pulsing through the speakers.
“Your friend Georgie came to observe one of the cardio striptease classes. She’s a sweetie.”
Just like that Olivia was slammed back into Mr. Totally Wrong for Her territory. She’d just wanted to get a drink and forget about him but it seemed like no matter where she went, he found a way to follow her. Her apartment, her work, her bed, her dreams. Nowhere was safe. Worse, in the past few weeks she’d come to rely on his steady presence. For the first time in years, she’d felt like she had someone to lean on. It hurt almost more than her pride to lose that.
“Oh, Serena everything is so messed up. I fell for a member and I really thought we had something. I haven’t had a boyfriend in so long but there was something so different about King. Even though I know he doesn’t respect me at all, I still can’t stop thinking about him. What do I do?”
Serena leaned closer and yelled over the music. “What did you say?”
She sighed. Was this really what she’d been reduced to? Serena was really nice and would have no problem giving her a shoulder to cry on if she needed one but she didn’t know her that well. Had she really been reduced to dumping her problems on whoever happened to be sitting close by? This wasn’t the place to have a deep conversation anyway. People didn’t come to The Martini Room for deep thoughts. They came to forget their troubles.
Olivia plastered on a fake smile and raised her drink in Serena’s direction. “Nothing worth repeating.”
Serena laughed at something Redd said and Olivia wished this was a day that Elizabeth was scheduled to visit the club. Her friend was a silent partner for a reason and due to her father’s political career no one else at the club even knew her by her real name. They all knew her as Tess.
Whatever name she chose to go under, Olivia could have used a friend just then. Sure, she could always call her but this wasn’t the kind of thing she wanted to explain over the phone. This was the kind of problem that required an in-person girl power bitch session. But over the years as she’d worked single-mindedly toward her goal of financial independence, everything else in her life had taken a backseat, including friendships. The people she saw the most these days were her partners, her employees and… King.
As Olivia sipped her drink, she watched the people gyrating on the dance floor and felt how truly alone she really was.
King had learned long ago that the best time to attack wasn’t when your opponent was expecting it. So he waited a few days before he went to see Georgie. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty to keep him busy. Reviewing the financials for the last quarter, handling a crisis with one of their top-tier investors and basically catching up on all the work he’d been ignoring the last few weeks while he’d been so mentally absent.
At the thought of Olivia, his hands tensed on the steering wheel. He parked in the drive in front of Kingsley Manor and got out. He’d called ahead so Jenner opened the door before he even hit the steps.
“Your father’s waiting for you in his office, sir.”
He nodded to the older man and watched as he ambled back toward the kitchen. The elderly woman who’d been in residence while he was growing up had retired not long after he entered college and moved to live closer to her grandchildren. Jenner had been hired after he was already an adult so they had a more distant relationship. It had never bothered him until recently that he knew so little about someone who lived on his parents’ property. But now, it seemed wrong that he’d never thought about it. He didn’t know any of the maids’ names either. Olivia would have said he was being a typical elitist. His lips twitched at the thought.
Then his heart clenched as it hit him anew that it didn’t matter what Olivia thought now.
His father’s office was on the main level in the East wing of the house. Thane looked up when he entered the office.
“King. I was surprised when you called.”
He stood and came from behind the desk, motioning to the leather club chairs in the middle of the room.
“Have a seat. Tell me what’s going on. Does this have anything to do with how Georgie’s been moping around these past few days?”
They sat and King waved his hand to decline when his father asked if he wanted a drink.
“I’m here to check on her. I think she might have just partied a little too hard or something.”
He’d debated how much to tell his parents. If he was a father he wouldn’t appreciate being kept in the dark about what was going on but these types of situations were best if contained. The less people who knew the better. Plus, there were some things a man didn’t need to know about his daughter. As her older brother he was already permanently traumatized by the idea of her having sex. He didn’t need to share that pain with his father.
His father sighed. The lines around his face were more pronounced and he looked tired. King realized he was looking at his own face in thirty years.
“That much was evident. She was brought home by James and appeared to have been drinking heavily. I’m not sure what’s going on with that girl. I’m starting to think that encouraging her to marry Alex was the wrong move. Things were different back in our day. You got mar
ried to someone that your parents approved of and you had kids of your own. You tried not to fuck them up too badly. But the more time passes, the less confidence I have in the job your mother and I did. You kids don’t seem to be adjusting to life on your own too well.”
Shocked, King leaned back in his chair. “Dad, you don’t mean that.”
“I do. Colin barely has the motivation to get out of bed each day. Your sister seems to have no backbone and just wants to please everyone. Then there’s you. I worry about you most.”
“Why would you worry about me more than the others? I’m the only one who has a job! I’ve worked every day of my life to prove myself to you and it’s never enough.”
“Exactly. You work every day of your life and seem to live for that and nothing else. Colin is unmotivated but that can be fixed when he finds something that excites him. Your sister is a pleaser but eventually she’ll find herself and decide what she wants to stand for. But you, I don’t know how to help someone who doesn’t want to care about anything.”
The anger that had risen so quickly drained out of King just as fast. Everything his father had said reflected what he’d come to feel as well. He worked hard every day but it no longer brought him any joy. His joy had been the time he’d spent with Olivia learning how not to take himself so seriously.
“Maybe you’re right.”
His father looked surprised by the admission but he put a steadying hand on King’s shoulder. “If you need to talk, I hope you know that I’m here.”
“I do. Thanks, Dad. I’m going to go check on Georgie.”
His father didn’t press him. “Good. I’ve always been glad you two are so close. So you can tell her that vase she knocked over when she stumbled in was a Ming. Your mother was pissed.”
As King left the office his dad was still chuckling.
His sister had moved to a different room after she returned from college, one of the guest suites in the opposite wing from where his parents were. He knocked lightly on her door and as soon as it opened, stuck his foot in the crack so she couldn’t slam it once she realized it was him.