The only question remaining now was whether she was a criminal. He'd hurt her when he'd walked away from her before. Had she decided to get her revenge by stealing from him?
He was about to demand answers when his phone rang. Jackson grabbed it from the counter. Donovan.
“You were right, it looks like Alexandra is stealing from you,” Donovan said by way of greeting. “The programs she set up in the wee hours of the morning in the server room were definitely financial skimmers. I don't know details yet, like how much or how long yet.”
“Thanks.”
“That's not all, Jackson. You're never going to believe it. Not in a million years. When I found out what she was doing I looked further into her booking here on the ship, her cabin, her info.”
He stared at Lexi, knowing she couldn’t hear what Donovan was saying. “Let me guess, there’s no Alexandra Silver on the ship, but there is an Alexandra Durham, who works for SilverSystems. You and I fucked her last night, not Alexandra Silver.”
“How did you know?”
“Because little Lexi is sitting on my bed, right at this minute.”
Chapter Twelve
Jackson stared down at the printout Donovan had given him. Ian Damascus, one of his dual heads of security on the ship was also there in case Jackson wanted to make an arrest.
Wanted to arrest Lexi.
Donovan was leaning against the desk in the security office as Jackson read. “So she edited part of her own company's software to skim from the guest management system. Every time a cruise guest pays for anything using their keycard — which is for every damn thing on this ship — a tiny percentage is skimmed to her account.”
“And this began in the middle of the night last night. Right after I saw who I thought was Alexandra, but was actually Lexi, going into the server room.” God damn it.
“Yep.”
“Why?” Jackson did some of the math in his head. “The amount of money she will make from this is minuscule compared to what her company makes overall as our software provider.”
Ian shrugged. “Yeah, but this is going directly to her pocket. And it's a smart move to start with amounts so small. What? Less than a quarter of a percent? Nobody would've ever noticed it if you hadn't seen her, Jackson. Then she could've very slowly upped the amount she skimmed. In five years, she could've been making millions of dollars.”
Jackson put the printouts down on the desk and rubbed his eyes.
“I know you don't want to believe it because it's Lexi,” Donovan said softly. “But let's be honest, if she has the capacity to lie to such a degree in the club, then she has the capacity to do this.”
“She had her reasons for keeping her identity secret in the club. It started out as a misunderstanding and then escalated,” Jackson heard himself say.
He could understand why she had hidden her face from people at the club. Hidden herself from him at the club, because that's really what she'd been doing. But stealing from him?
“Is there any possible way she could've been doing something else? Maybe we are misinterpreting this data in some way?”
“What other way do you think you it can be interpreted, boss?” Donovan shifted off of Ian’s desk. And only called him boss when he didn't agree with something Jackson was saying.
“I'm just saying that I haven't made millions of dollars by always taking data at face value. We dig deeper. See if there's something we're missing. Hell, you guys, what if she's doing some sort of security check for her own software, her own company. Or our IT department?”
Ian shrugged. “It would be a very convenient defense if you confronted her. So you should avoid that, Jackson. Just like you haven't made your millions by taking data at face value, you haven't made your millions by letting a pretty face hoodwink you either.”
“Lexi Durham is more than just a pretty face.”
Donovan leaned down to rest his hand on the desk. “You're right. She's your dead best friend's little sister. She's also a woman you scorned, so don't forget that either. You walked away from her.”
“Because she was a damn teenager! Too young, too innocent for me. A virgin.” And still had been right up until he'd fucked her a couple of hours ago.
Donovan shook his head. “All your good intentions don't change the fact that you broke her heart. Maybe little Lexi decided to get some revenge.”
“By stealing money I was never even going to miss?” Jackson blew out a harsh breath, struggling to get himself under control. Ian and Donovan were his employees, but moreover were his friends. Their thoughts about Lexi weren't unreasonable, even if Jackson didn't like it. “Look, we keep digging. Until I have undeniable proof, I'm not going to believe this about Lexi.”
“And if we do get you the proof? What then?” Ian asked.
“I just don't know.” It wasn't a statement he made very often, but it was the absolute truth now.
“Fine,” Ian said. “But as your head of security, I want to tell you that she needs to be watched. Until we can dig further, we need to keep an eye on Lexi without tipping her off. Can you do that?”
“Maybe I'll just tie her to my bed. I've got four years of wanting to fuck her senseless stored in my balls.”
The other two men laughed. Ian reached into his desk and pulled out a box, opening it and showing them a tiny microchip.
“This is a tracking chip Quentin and I have been looking into using on certain occasions. It doesn’t do much and doesn’t have much range, but for tracking someone on a ship it’s damn near perfect.”
Jackson looked down at the chip, not much bigger than a grain of rice.
“Use it,” Donovan said. “Give her a bracelet or something with the chip in it. Just to keep an eye on her in case you decide to untie her from your bed.”
Jackson didn’t like it, but he could see their point. “Fine, but you don’t turn it on unless I give the order.”
Both men nodded.
Jackson picked up the box with the tracking chip. “And you keep digging into the skimming system. See if there’s anything else to be found.”
“We'll work the problem,” Donovan said. “You work Lexi.”
“That will be my pleasure.”
Jackson’s parting words as he’d left a couple hours ago — “If you leave this room, I will blister your ass” — hadn't given Lexi much comfort. Actually it would've given her a lot of comfort if it wasn't for how cold his eyes had gotten as he'd listened to whatever Donovan said to him on the phone.
He'd been pissed when he found out who she was. For a second she'd really thought he was going to stop in the middle of them having sex. She would've died. The initial discomfort at losing her virginity had quickly been lost to the overwhelming sensation of having Jackson inside her. Having his cock hit her g-spot over and over.
When he'd told her to touch her own clit she'd nearly seized up in pleasure, from both his dominant words and the physical stimulation. She'd thought playing at the club had been good. But sex with Jackson — even almost vanilla — had been beyond amazing.
She couldn't even image what it would be like once Jackson's controlling personality kicked in and they had sex.
If they ever had sex again.
She would've bet on it earlier. Even though he had been angry most of the time he’d spent questioning her, his eyes had burned with a hot passion. He was mad that she'd hidden her identity from him. But she would bet that every single thing she’d described from the BDSM club that turned her on, Jackson planned to do to her.
St. Andrew's cross. Spanking bench. Public punishment.
Probably even the medical station, even though she'd said she'd been less than thrilled at that. Because he would want to push her and make her uncomfortable and control her. She wanted that in a Dom and had always know Jackson would be such from the moment she'd first seen him at the club.
Jackson angry, she could handle. If he wanted to punish her for her deception, she would relish it. If he wanted to fuck her
in all the ways he knew how... cue the hallelujah chorus.
But Jackson with the cold empty eyes she'd seen as he'd left here after the phone call? That she couldn't handle.
That was the same man who'd sat across from her the night after they shared such intimacy four years ago and told her she wasn't enough for him. A tremor made its way through her body. Rubbing her arms to try to instill some warmth, Lexi stood and walked out onto the expansive balcony of Jackson's suite. Out in the Mediterranean air she shouldn't feel this cold. The ship had docked in Bari, Italy, the medieval walled city sitting beautifully on the hill.
The city was completely walled. That's how she’d felt when she'd looked into Jackson's eyes just before he left a while ago. Walled out. Iced out.
Lexi was a borderline genius when it came to computers and developing programing and software. But evidently she was an idiot when it came to men. Or at least to Jackson Calder.
Was she really going to give him the opportunity to devastate her again? The mask had come off, the challenge was over for him. Yeah, maybe he might want her around for a few more fucks, but it wouldn't be long before he tired of her and politely excused himself from her life again.
It didn't have to be that way. She wasn't the same person she'd been four years ago. Maybe she was always going to want to submit to him sexually — God, how she wanted the chance to submit to his dominant Aries nature sexually — but she wasn't a doormat. Wasn't his to use whenever he wanted and discard when he didn't.
He would never respect her if she was. Hell, she would never respect herself.
Better to halt it all before it got any more out of control. Maybe she and Jackson could play together at the club once they were both back in Los Angeles. It would be casual.
Lexi wasn't sure she was able to do casual in any way with Jackson. But maybe that was the only choice. And if it was, would she be able to accept it?
Yes, she would. Because she wasn't that teenager any longer who'd watched him walk out of her life and had been devastated. She was stronger now.
And she sure as hell wasn't going to sit here and wait for him to come back and get her. As much as she might want him to be, Jackson wasn't her Dom. And she didn't have to do what he told her. She'd sat in this room long enough.
She grabbed her hoodie and strode to the door with purpose, opened it...
And walked straight into Jackson's chest. While it nearly knocked her backwards, it didn't move him an inch.
She looked up from his chest to his eyes and found one of his dark eyebrows raised. “Going somewhere? I believe I said I would spank you if you didn't stay here.”
The cold aloofness was gone, which reassured and confused her at the same time. “I wasn't sure you were coming back. Or if you were, I thought I would save you the trouble of deciding again that we're not meant to be together, or whatever.”
“Is that what you thought I would do? Come back here to announce it was over?”
She shrugged a single shoulder. “You have to admit, the last time we were intimate that's what happened. Thought it might be your M.O.”
He took a menacing step forward and she automatically took one back. “I think I owe you two spankings now.”
God, she wished that didn't cause her pussy to just start weeping. She could feel her nipples hardening against her shirt. But she couldn't back down. Wouldn't live in limbo. ”What do you want from me, Jackson?”
He took another step forward, but this time she didn't step back. They stood, bodies almost touching. Her breath hissed out when he ran his fingers gently up her arms, starting at her wrists and ending at her shoulders. She stared at the top button of his shirt, open at his neck.
“What do I want?” he whispered, his deep voice resonating within her. “I want three things.”
“What?”
“First, to give you those spankings you deserve, bare-assed over my lap like you were last night.” He closed the slight distance between them so her breasts were brushing up against his chest. “Second, I want to make love to you. I'm going to do all sorts of perverted, kinky things to you over time Lexi; fuck you in positions you didn’t even know existed, but just once I'm going to make love to you. Gently, the way I should and would have this morning if I had known you were a virgin.”
Her breaths were coming faster. Only Jackson could talk about the plainest of vanilla sex and make it sound like the most decadent of sweets.
“And third?” She couldn't think of anything else he could want.
“Third, we're at one of the most beautiful port cities in all of Italy. I would like to take you out and show you around Bari.”
Chapter Thirteen
She didn't leave Jackson's side for the next three days.
After returning from whatever had made him so cold and distant, he'd been anything but. He'd spanked her across his lap, as he'd promised, fingering her pussy in between until she'd come, crying his name. Then, also as he promised, he'd made love to her on his big bed. Sweetly, tenderly.
He'd laved her with his tongue until she'd begged him to take her, then he'd moved up her body, and eased himself inside her. They'd been looking into each other's eyes, fingers linked together as orgasms had taken them both.
She’d had no idea something so gentle could shatter her so completely. Leave her so exposed, stunned, shredded.
Not just physically, but emotionally. When he asked her afterwards as he held her — both of them a little shaken by the emotional depth of what had just happened — if she believed in Santa Claus, she'd wondered if that was some sort of code for something sexual.
But a few hours later, after they'd showered and napped, Jackson had escorted her off the ship and into the walled city of Bari. They'd stopped at a cafe for ice cream. She'd laughed when he'd told the waiter — in perfect Italian — that they would take any flavor but vanilla, they'd already had enough vanilla today. Then they'd walked, hand in hand around the narrow streets of the medieval city, and ended up at the Basilica di San Nicola. Jackson took her inside and explained the one thousand year old church was the final resting place of St. Nicholas. Santa Claus.
She had to admit, it was an impressive first date.
Their second date was even more so, when the ship stopped the next day in Venice. Because of his offices in Rome, Jackson had spent quite a bit of time in Venice and took her around the city — so unique because no cars we allowed inside the town limits. To get anywhere, you either walked over narrow bridges or took a water taxi.
Jackson had shown her Piazza San Marco, home of the infamous Carnival in February, where everyone dressed in masquerade masks and fancy dresses. He'd taken her to nearby Murano and shown her where they hand blow glass and had even bought her a trinket.
If she hadn't been in love with Jackson Calder since she was sixteen years old, she definitely would've been when he bought her a tiny glass charm shaped like a vanilla ice cream cone. It was utterly useless and perhaps the most wonderful gift she'd ever received.
Except for the necklace Jackson had slipped around her neck that morning. A modest gold choker, with thin golden woven strands.
As he’d fastened it under her hair, his blue eyes had met hers in the mirror. “Don’t take it off.”
No other words had been said, no promises implied, but they both knew that the necklace was a publicly acceptable version of a collar.
It announced to everyone that she was Jackson’s.
The Jackson she'd remembered before Scott had died was back. Funny, so smart, so patient. He asked her more questions about SilverSystems than she would've thought he'd be interested in knowing. But she'd done her best to explain. After all, he was the CEO of Calder Enterprises, SilverSystem's largest customer. She and Alexandra wouldn't go under if it wasn't for Jackson's business, but it would definitely be a big hole to fill.
She needed to get away from him to get to the server room to check the trap she'd placed for whoever was trying to steal from Calder Enterprises. She k
new it had to be someone already familiar with various aspects of Jackson's software, because whoever it was wasn't just using the SilverSystem programs to steal, he or she was using multiple programs. Hopefully the thief had already taken the bait and she would be able to track him.
She didn't want to tell Jackson about any of it until she had proof. Partly because the thief had to be someone he was already acquainted with. Someone whose systems Calder Enterprises had been using for a while. She didn't want to accuse anyone without the data to back it up. But more, if this new software she’d planted worked the way she thought it would, it could be a huge selling point for SilverSystems, helping future buyers combat fraud and theft.
She needed to get away from Jackson tonight and get this handled. There’d been no chance to get away from — hadn’t wanted to get away from him — for the past few days. But she didn't want it hanging over her head any longer and honestly just wanted to hand it off to someone who knew what to do with the information once she had the proof. She sure as hell wasn't interested in a confrontation herself.
All she would need to do is get the proof to Jackson and he would have someone who could handle it. Once she had the data, she'd be able to pinpoint where the thief was working. Probably in either his New York or Los Angeles offices.
She couldn't help but think that he would be happy, even proud, of what she'd done. Realizing a problem, taking initiative and fixing it. He would be proud of her both personally and professionally. The thought sent a thrill through her. Maybe he would reward her.
Maybe it would involve him tying her in some of the elaborate Shibari knots she'd seen him do in a scene a few months ago. The binding had seemed rather benign right up to the point where he'd suspended the submissive from reinforced bolts in the ceiling, and gently began swinging her.
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