“And then what?”
“Well then we kind of dissolved the company we had started together and both went our separate ways. I haven’t seen him since then.”
“Until now.”
“Until now”, Leighton repeated.
He could see she was scared. Philip may not have been the best stepdad in the world, but he figured he was probably the only one Gracey ever knew. Perhaps the other girls were older enough to have experienced things in a different way. Leighton could see she was hurting and perhaps much more vulnerable than she was making out. There was nothing worse than trying to make up for lost time. It was a pain he recognized.
“Do you mind if I stay for a while?” Leighton asked.
“Not at all. Here, take my seat. I could do with a break anyway.”
“No, I didn’t mean alone, it would be nice to have the company, that’s if you don’t mind, of course.”
“I don’t mind. I suppose I could do with the company as well. You can probably tell, he’s not much of a talker.”
“He never really was.”
“I guess not. Look, take the seat for a bit, I’m going to stretch my legs and get some coffee.”
Standing, Gracey came up to Leighton’s chest, so if he were to hold her, she would fit perfectly within his grasp. The space at the end of the bed was tight, and as she tucked in to squeeze past him, she had to choose to do it either facing him or facing away. It was a last minute decision caused by a sudden attack of self consciousness and as she gripped the edge of the bed to slide past him, she wasn’t able to avoid contact. The heat that coursed through her body stayed with her all the way through the wait for the coffee to drop out of the machine, the thirty minutes or so more that Leighton stayed with her and long into the night after he had gone, right up to the point where she knew if she wanted to feel it again she’d have to somehow find him.
***
The Exchange was packed when he got there. It was the best this city had to offer, which really paled in comparison to what he was used to. Gracey had been a welcome surprise to his hospital visit, and he thought it only fair to pay a visit to the rest of the family while he was here. It didn’t take long to spot the siblings, they both had the same features as their sister, although neither one of them was anywhere near as beautiful. Another sweep of the place picked out who he thought must be the mother, spread eagled across a satin sofa in one of the exclusive sections of the club reserved solely for those members who could afford to enter the very highest echelon. Leighton wasn’t a member here, although he had dealt with the holding company before. It didn’t matter. There wasn’t a single place Leighton Tempest couldn’t find his way into if he wanted to.
Pandora and Isabella were up at the bar chatting flirtatiously to a pair of identikit men in very expensive, ill-fitting suits. He couldn’t work out which one had copied the other first or whether the two had kind of evolved independently of each other. Of the two girls, one of them was clearly the alpha female, and the object of both men’s competitive urges. The other seemed happy to be along for the ride, doing little other than giggling along when she thought it might have been appropriate. The alpha looked like she was toying with the men, happy to let them think there might have been a possibility she’d let them take her home. A dangerous quality. They were probably computer analysts or hedge fund managers, Leighton thought. Those guys were always pale skinned and lacking in taste. Always the first ones to be cock-teased and the last ones to know about it. He took a seat at the bar, close enough to be able to hear their conversation, and far enough away to not have to be part of it when she came over to talk to him. And Leighton knew that would only be a matter of time.
When the most satisfactory bourbon was on the bar in front of him - a simple drink with a complexity of flavors - and he could feel the eyes of curiosity burn against the back of his head, he turned, caught Pandora’s eye and smiled, the effect of which, he heard with satisfaction, knocked her out of her flow of conversation.
He then began to count to ten in his head. When Pandora came over, Isabella left with the two other men to gape, a silent gap in the conversation that contrasted strongly against the chatter that had preceded it, he had got all the way to four. It wasn’t quite a record, but it was definitely up there.
Pandora leaned against the bar. She was cocky, and he liked that about her. Alphas dig alphas, there was no doubt about that, it just wasn’t a lasting combination. Besides which, this one looked far too easy.
“What took you so long?”
Pandora smiled. This was exactly the kind of guy she saw herself with. Smooth, sexy as hell, straight to the point and as cocky as she was. What was she doing messing around with tweedledum and tweedledee? A quick look back over to them seemed to indicate that without her Isabella felt completely at a loss. She made eyes to indicate for her not to come over under pain of death.
“I could ask you the same question”, Pandora said. “I’ve been waiting for someone like you all night.”
“Is that right?” Leighton said. “It looked like you and your sister were plenty busy.”
“You seen what usually comes in here?” Pandora said, making eyes at what she saw as a very poor reflection of humanity around her.
“I have to say this is my first time”, Leighton confessed.
“Is that right?”
Pandora pulled up a chair and sat at a right angle to Leighton, her foot on his stool to swing him around to face her. “What brings you here then?”
“It isn’t the bourbon, I can tell you that.”
“You’re in the wrong state. You should be ordering what I’m drinking.”
“I can’t see you drinking a thing.”
“That’s because you haven’t ordered it yet.”
Leighton appreciated the wordplay. He got the impression that this wasn’t the first time Pandora had used that line, but it was the first time he’d heard it being used on him. It deserved credit and to that end, he bought Pandora what she was ‘about to start’ drinking, switching over to the champagne himself and leaving the bourbon to the side.
“I like a man with style”, Pandora winked. “Even better if he has money to go along with it.”
Leighton noticed that the group to their left had already split up, Isabella returning to the safety of the cordoned off area to slump against the cushions like her drunk mother.
“She doesn’t have my stamina”, Pandora confessed, unable to keep her eyes off Leighton. He could feel them all over his body, even to the shadows of his pleated suit trousers. Pandora had already finished her first glass. She took the bottle to top herself back up.
“What are you celebrating?” Leighton asked.
“How do you know I’m not commiserating?”
“You’re not drinking fast enough.”
“My stepdaddy’s in the hospital. He’s going to die.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Pandora scoffed. “I’m not”, she said. “That’s why we’re here, everyone except Gracey of course. Like a stupid faithful mutt, she is. You know, even a kicked dog goes back to it’s owner.”
“If your sister is a kicked dog, what are you?”
“I’ll show you if you want me to.”
Pandora took the moment to lay her palms flat against Leighton’s knees and began to slide herself forwards towards him, her hands creeping to that ruffled area near his crotch, she had enough experience to know concealed something very large indeed. Just before Leighton needed to remove her, Pandora pulled herself away. She’d have dropped onto her knees in seconds for this man, either to suck his cock or even better let him fuck her from behind, but the alcohol was making what she wanted seem too evident, and she didn’t want to appear too forthcoming, not that any man had ever resisted her advances before. This one seemed a little different though. This one seemed worth making need her.
Leighton watched the game change with interest. He saw it as a flicker in her eye. As a coquettish
flick of her hair.
“So what brings you here, Mr. Mysterious”, Pandora asked. “You never did tell me your name.”
Leighton topped up Pandora’s champagne flute and then attended to his own.
“My name is Leighton Tempest”, Leighton said. “I’m actually here for some business, but I’m still waiting for the contract to be signed, so to speak. I’ll be very happy when it is.”
“Then that makes two of us waiting. I’ll drink to that”, Pandora said, and raised her glass.
A worthy competitor, Leighton thought. Very fuckable too, if she managed to go at least five minutes without obviously telling him she wanted it. She had a good figure, and a pretty face, and she was clearly experienced enough to have clocked his magnificent cock. That worked in her favor. What didn’t, was her eagerness. The hands on the knees, even though she realized before she went too far, was a complete turn off for him. If he couldn’t respect her, he couldn’t fuck her and enjoy it as much. That’s where Gracey had got him. She was smart and sensitive, where her older sister was brash and ballsy, and although she blushed in his company, which was probably more of an indication of her personality than anything else, she gave no indication at all that she wanted him. And that seeming lack of interest, coupled with the fact that Gracey seemed more innocent that a saint eating a banana, was what made him want her more. Of course, he knew that if he had her - and it was always a matter of time more than choice with Leighton - he’d probably get bored with her just as quickly as he did the last one. The last one was Esmeralda of course, and although she didn’t know it officially yet, she would do as soon as she needed to. Leighton never cheated on women, he was always up front and clear about it from the outset, not that that made it any easier for them. It would be interesting to meet the third sister he thought. Although she didn’t look it at all, she might have been the perfect balance of both girls. The opportunity to do so seemed like it was about to present itself much more quickly than he’d originally thought.
“We’ve got to go”, Isabella said, even before she’d got to them.
“Isabella, can’t you see I’m busy”, Pandora complained.
“Mom’s been sick all over the carpet.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“It’s more than that”, Isabella confessed. “I’ve just had the hospital call me.”
Leighton felt his heart skip a beat.
“Sorry”, Isabella said, turning to Leighton, and then pausing a moment to take him in. “It’s just it’s a personal matter.”
“Fuck that Isabella, is he dead or not?!”
***
At the hospital, Gracey stood aside with her hands over her mouth while a team of medical staff worked hard to try and restart Philip’s heart. They performed mouth to mouth, gave his fat, inert body several shocks from the defibrillator and finally, after twelve minutes of a flatlining machine, called the time of death.
Philip Mandrake de Vries, who was once a very rich man, was now a very dead man. In his Chesapeake river estate, Alexander sat up and howled towards the moon.
Chapter 4
In accordance with his will, the details of which were being kept very hush-hush by the team of six lawyers Philip had installed prior to his death, his gargantuan remains were reduced in size in temperatures close to those of the surface of the sun, before being bottled in one of the family heirlooms - much to the disgust of his now widowed wife - and placed in the local cemetery. Philip was as eccentric as most extremely rich people become at some point in their lives, and the plot he had chosen reflected that in it’s ostentatiousness. He had constructed what would be best described as a mini-stadium, where visitors to his burial site had to enter firstly through gated access protected by a security code, before being greeted by three rows of seating that gave perfect views of the marble tomb. Philip’s remains were placed on the top of a large stone structure - ‘hugged by them’, were the specific words he had used - carved by a modern artist into a conceptual but surrealist form. The whole thing had taken six months to construct, and was done in earnest, even though Philip had no idea when he was likely to die. It had cost him almost a hundred thousand dollars, and Philip had left another hundred in his will, just for the potential upkeep. On top of that, after the project had been finished a little under two years ago, Philip had paid a security guard to protect the site from vandals. It was, ironically, somewhat of a passion project.
While Philip was placed in the hug of the stone statue, friends and family members looked on, Leighton included, at what was clearly a bizarre event. Philip hadn’t even been particularly religious, yet the church he had chosen was a Christian one of common denomination. Alexis half believed this was her late husband getting back at them from beyond the grave, in what would be his last act of control. It was enough that people had to stare at him after all of this was done without having to be put through the rigmarole of the ceremony as well. She couldn’t wait for it to be over. She also couldn’t wait for the will to be read and for Philip’s business accounts to be unlocked and passed into her name. Just getting to this point had been hard enough. The autopsy was more than she expected, but according to the lawyers, every single one of them, her own included, who was considerably less talented than the gamut Philip had put together, it was what Philip and not the police had requested. The last thing she needed was the police sniffing around and a hold being put on the cash as well as the credit cards while they started to investigate. She’d seen enough detective series and dodgy daytime soaps to know that as soon as a wealthy man died, the police were all over it like flies to shit. The problem was that her husband, as well as being eccentric, was also a little paranoid. Someone bumping him off was exactly the kind of thing he believed would happen, more so from someone who had a chance to gain directly from his death.
Alexis was the first one out when the ceremony was over. She made a point of kissing the urn, wiping a fake tear from her cheek and grabbing the nearest person to her to help her should she faint. That person happened to be Leighton, and it wasn’t just by chance that he found himself alongside her.
“You must be devastated”, Leighton commented.
Alexis had to lower her glasses just to take a look at the man she now had her arm around. She was always good at picking them, she thought. Even today, the day they were putting her husband into his grave, in a manner of speaking.
“The day just got way better”, she said, grabbing hold of Leighton’s arm a little more tightly should someone pull him away.
“He was a horrible man really”, Alexis confessed as they walked back to the cars. “Egotistical, crazy, tight as well. You know, I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. I’m-”
“Leighton?” Pandora said, cutting her mother off. She hadn’t seen him before now, and began striding purposefully across the grass to get to him.
“Hello Pandora”, Leighton said.
“You two know each other?” Pandora and Alexis said in unison.
“We were about to get to know each other right before you decided to poke your nose in. Leighton was helping me to the car.”
“Is that right?” Pandora said, wrapping her arm around Leighton’s free one. “Then seeing as we are travelling together, mother, we can both take you.”
Alexis grumbled silently but she knew just as well as most that fifty percent of something was better than a hundred percent of nothing. Pandora had inherited her womanly ways, and she knew that when her daughter got her claws into something, she rarely let go. She felt proud of her for that. Like mother like daughter.
“Is this the business you were talking about, Leighton?” Pandora purred, taking the opportunity to stroke his arm and wrap her slender fingers around his bicep muscle, of which she was pleased to note there was plenty.
“Business, what business do you have with my dead husband? Your not another lawyer are you? Please don’t tell me you’re another lawyer. There won’t be any left in the county.”
�
�No, I’m not a lawyer”, Leighton said.
They’d arrived at the cars, the peloton behind them closing in like a flock of hungry crows. Leighton took off his sunglasses, and both Pandora and her mother gasped a little at the perfection of his eyes. “I’m a businessman”, he continued. “Much like Philip was. We worked on a project together a long time ago and I came when I heard he was ill. To be honest, I wasn’t Philip’s biggest fan, but I was in the area so I thought I’d drop by the hospital.”
“You went to see him?” Pandora said. She’d reluctantly broken away from Leighton, feeling as though hanging on to him still might have broken social convention.
“I did”, Leighton confessed.
“Then that means you must have met-”
“Hello Gracey”, Leighton said, his eyes lighting up so much that Pandora couldn’t help but see it.
“Perfect”, she said in disbelief.
“Hi Leighton”, Gracey said, black sunglasses covering crying eyes, her arms folded protectively across her chest.
“We’re just missing the dunce now”, Pandora said. “Then you’ve got a full house.”
“Don’t be pejorative about your sister, please”, Alexis crowed. “We’ve had enough disruption in this family to last us a lifetime.”
As if on cue, Isabella came over to join them.
“Hi”, she said in a tone completely out of place at a funeral.
“Leighton this is the other sister, Isabella. Isabella, this is Leighton.” Pandora said, taking charge.
“The guy from the bar”, Isabella said, pointing at him. “I remember you. You’re hot.”
Leighton couldn’t help but smile.
“Thank you”, he said, coyly. “But the pleasure is all mine. It’s been a long time since I’ve been surrounded by such perfect examples of beauty.”
Gracey groaned but she couldn’t hide her blushes. Pandora couldn’t do anything else but think of Leighton’s cock. Isabella, meanwhile, was thinking about the spread of food that she knew would be awaiting them at the house.
DONKEY: A Stepbrother Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel Charged!) Page 27