Lost In Between: Finding Me Duet #1

by K. L. Kreig

  “Running into a little snag in the expansion, but I’m working it out. You?”

  “Couldn’t be better.”

  “This guy’s gonna give Preston a run for his money.” Paul nods in the direction of the mayoral candidate.

  “Putting all your chips into a new basket, eh?”

  Paul shrugs nonchalantly. “The other basket seems to have sprung a leak.”

  “Or maybe it’s just overflowing,” Noah responds coolly. I have no idea what this cryptic discussion means, and I don’t know this man at all, but I do sense he’s covering a slow, simmering anger. “How’s Velma?” Noah’s darkened eyes flit back to mine briefly before sticking to Paul again.

  “I wouldn’t know. We’ve parted ways.” He sounds sad and regretful, except in bad form, he was dissing his “not quite” third ex’s prowess in bed when he didn’t think I was listening. Prick.

  Pasting me to his side like I’m a prize Noah will thief away, he asks, “So, you settle down yet?”

  “Too slippery for that.” They laugh. I roll my eyes—mentally, because I’ve slipped back into the doting Summer. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to this beauty?” Noah turns his attention back to me with a gleam in his eye that I can’t decipher.

  “Not on your life. I wouldn’t put it past you to try stealing her out from under me.” He leans toward Noah and drops his voice. “And I kinda like this one. Maybe she’ll be number four.”

  I start coughing, choking on saliva that’s made its way down my windpipe when I inhaled sharply at his insinuation.

  “Are you okay?” they both ask in unison.

  I hold up a finger while the other hand covers my mouth. “Fine,” I rasp. I point in the direction of the restroom before I take off, leaving the two of them behind.

  When I return a few minutes later, I’m slightly disappointed to spot the smooth-talking Noah across the room, now in deep discussion with an older couple. His eyes find mine, silently asking if I’m all right. When I nod, he smiles and politely returns it before turning his attention back to the man with the salt-and-pepper hair.

  Wishing I could leave, but knowing I can’t, I reluctantly wind my way through the thick crowd back to my date for the evening. I keep tabs on Noah for a while, even see him talking to Ian for a bit before he disappears.

  Standing by Paul’s side, I make small talk for the next hour and a half before he’s ready to call it a night. I quickly text Abraam as the three of us walk outside together. Ian trails behind us while Paul leans on me heavily in his drunkenness.

  This is the part of the night that generally goes without incident. After all, the client knows what they’ve purchased. They know the rules. They sign off on them. Randi is very meticulous about policies, procedures, and documentation.

  But Paul and Ian apparently have other ideas.

  Paul purrs drunkenly in my ear, “I would very much like it if you would accompany me back to my hotel tonight.”

  I glance back at Ian to catch him openly ogling my ass. I’m quite sure even if I wanted to agree—although thinking about it makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little—they’d both end up with a nasty case of whiskey dick, and I’d be left to pleasure myself.

  “I appreciate the offer, Paul, but we both know this evening ends here.” I am polite and cordial and pray hard that Abraam arrives from the parking garage any second.

  “Oh, come now, Summer.” Beefy fingers bite into my biceps when he yanks me into him. “We both know what you do for a living.”

  I grit my teeth trying to keep calm, but nerves cause my stomach to churn. The crowd has thinned considerably, and the area he’s led us to is pretty dark. These two men could easily force me into their car before anyone realizes what’s happened.

  “You need to let me go,” I grit.

  I try to squirm free but feel body heat at my back. I flinch when unwelcomed hands ghost my waist. “It’ll be worth your while, cupcake,” Ian disgustingly hums against my neck. My earlier thoughts about whiskey dick die when I feel his erection prodding my lower back. “Maybe we’ll even leave you a nice fat tip in the morning if we’re thoroughly satisfied.”

  Oh shit. Shit. Shit. I could be in some very serious trouble here.

  I’m trying to figure out how to play along yet stall until Abraam arrives when a dark, sexy, saving voice drawls, “There a problem here?”

  Noah.

  Relief hits me so fast my knees almost give. Paul’s grip loosens, and Ian takes a step back. Seizing the opportunity, I shake Paul’s hold and step to the side, no longer sandwiched between these two repulsive men. I breathe a sigh of relief when Abraam pulls around the corner.

  “Fine, fine, Noah.” Paul staggers a little when he loses my body as leverage.

  Incredibly embarrassed, I don’t want to so much as look at Noah, but when I finally brave a glance at him, I don’t recognize the easygoing man teasing and flirting with me earlier. The man I see before me now is fierce, protective. Livid as hell.

  Abraam parks and is rounding the car when Noah sets his hand on my lower back, ushering me forward. “You okay? You look shook up,” he says lowly, his cheek close to mine.

  “I…I’m fine.” But my voice wobbles, giving me away. My adrenaline was pumping earlier, but now that the altercation is over, I shake uncontrollably.

  “Everything okay, ma’am?” Abraam asks when he opens the door. His gaze volleys between the three men. Abraam is big and bulky, former military. He could easily take down any one of them if necessary. He wouldn’t hesitate if he thought they were a danger to me.

  “Yes,” I whisper on a thin smile. “A little too much to drink, I think.”

  “Make sure the lady gets home safely,” Noah commands, helping me into the interior. He leans inside and looks at me pointedly. “You really should be more careful with the company you keep, doll.”

  “Life doesn’t always grant us choices,” I blurt before I know what’s coming out of my mouth.

  His mouth turns down slightly. “All the same, choose more carefully next time.” His concern is genuine. I nod, and he surprises me by cupping my cheek, kissing me lightly on the forehead.

  “Noah,” I call before the door closes. When he pokes his head back in, I add quietly, “Thank you.”

  He nods sharply, his lips tightly pressed together. The overhead light extinguishes, and we pull away from the curb as I watch a heated exchange between two drunken men and my savior.

  For the first time since I started working for Randi, I question what the hell I’m doing and if there’s another way. But I know there’s not, or I would have figured it out already.

  I don’t break often. It’s self-indulgent and doesn’t change your circumstances. All you get from your brief pity party is a stuffy nose and throbbing temples.

  But for the second time that day, I fall apart and let the tears freely flow.

  I miss my family.

  6

  “So, let me get this straight,” Noah starts after throwing back the last of his drink, pounding the now dry glass on the table. “You’re going to start dating Lianna again because…why?”

  Confusion draws his features down, and it would be funny if this situation weren’t fucked six ways from yesterday. The mere thought of calling Lianna and asking her to do this favor for me—more importantly, for my father—makes my skin crawl. But I don’t know what else to do. There’s not a woman in my past I can call on for this type of thing, and I can’t very well just pick one off the corner of Third and Cherry Street.

  “Another one, handsome?” our scantily covered waitress, Gina, nods to Noah’s empty. She has a dozen tables she’s responsible for, yet she’s been hovering over ours like we’re her VIPs for the evening.

  “Sure thing, darling.” Noah winks flirtatiously, reeling her in with his suave looks and dual dimples. We are a well-oiled machine, Noah and me. He’s better being the relaxed, carefree flirt; I excel at dominating and controlling. It works for us when we’re dow
n for a night of pure gluttonous indulgence.

  Tonight, the way Noah’s running his hand lightly up the back of Gina’s bare thigh makes it clear his head is in the den of depravity. The way her eyes are glazing over, it’s apparent she is amenable.

  Gina leans over, exaggerating her reach for the glass. The move pushes her D-cup plumped-up tits even farther. I see a hint of her dark brown areolas, and my dick stirs. If that little gesture wasn’t her unspoken invitation, then the message is loud and clear when she bites her lip and looks to both of us, rasping, “I get off at eleven.”

  She is beautiful, and it’s obvious she’s only looking for a single night of debauchery, not promises of tomorrow. Just the kind of woman I need right now. I imagine my dick sinking between her fleshy lips as Noah pounds into her from behind, making her cry around me. Making me squirt down her long, supple throat.

  Days ago, I would have been all over her blatant invitation, but now…now I’ve made a promise I need to somehow keep that does not involve getting her back to Hotel 1000 and onto my cock.

  I sigh heavily, watching dessert walk away, slim hips enticingly swaying. It’s been far too long since I’ve been laid. I’m getting both antsy and less picky. I need release that doesn’t involve some lube, my own hand, and thoughts of a disheveled blond nymph whose bare spanked ass I’d like to see bent high in the air over the hood of my Rover.

  “So…Lianna?”

  Fuck. Unnamed sparkling blue eyes that blaze with fire transform into Lianna’s desolate mocha ones.

  “Yeah, Lianna.”

  “You’re going to date her again because your father asked you to?” he asks incredulously. “And you’re considering it?”

  “It’s not that simple, Noah.”

  “The fuck it’s not. It’s pretty damn simple to me. To help get your father reelected for his second term as Seattle’s mayor, you’re going to shackle yourself to a woman who will get her claws so far into you they’ll petrify. Jesus Christ, Merc, if he asked you to marry her, too, would you?”

  My father wasn’t actually elected into his current mayoral position. When the existing mayor can no longer meet his or her duties, due to say death, the city council president is next in line. So, this election will be my father’s first official election by the people into a role he was clearly born for. Politics was always my father’s passion, not business. While Preston Mercer is a great businessman, he’s an even better politician. I want to help him live his dream any way I can, just as he helped me live mine.

  “This isn’t about Lianna, Noah. He didn’t ask me to start dating her again specifically. He asked me to settle down for a while with one woman and…”

  “And what?”

  I eye Noah. I have no issues with what we do. Every encounter we have together with a woman is pleasurable and consensual. I love fucking a woman solo, but if she wants, I also enjoy helping her achieve her fantasy of being dominated by two men at once.

  It’s not something we set out to do intentionally. We stumbled into it quite by accident one drunken night at a college frat party when I walked in on Noah fucking Katrina, a girl we’d both been interested in. When I turned to leave, she asked me to stay. Asked me if she could suck my cock while Noah continued pounding into her. Noah shrugged like he didn’t care, and come on, let’s be honest…what red-blooded nineteen-year-old male is going to turn down that little request? Not fucking one.

  “He’s heard rumors about us. What we do. And so apparently has Wicklow Harrington the fucking third.” My father’s rival for the mayoral seat.

  “Your sex life is not on the ballot, my friend. Your dad’s reelection should not involve you. You’re a grown man who can fuck who he wants, when he wants, how he wants.”

  “You’re right. It shouldn’t. But we both know it will. Harrington has some pretty powerful and questionable backing and he’s also got the union in his hip pocket. He wants to win, and he’s starting to dig deep. Dad told me he already found out about Bluebelle’s latest rehab stay, though that’s supposed to be buried. It’s only a matter of time before his cronies find out some of the other shit.”

  “Fuck.” Noah runs a hand through his hair.

  “Yeah. And then there’s Gemma’s cheating asshole of a husband and of course, let’s not forget about Lincoln and the way he uses fashion to express his gender fluidity. My father may have the most favorable rating of any mayor in the past fifty years, but all that means is Harrington will bring bigger guns.”

  “So, this race is going to turn personal against your family? All the skeletons unearthed?”

  “According to my father, yes. Harrington is an unscrupulous low-life prick. He’ll do anything to win, and I’ll do anything to save my family from being dragged through political mudslinging.”

  Even date Lianna again. Christ help me.

  “Look, Merc,” he says, leaning forward. “I understand you want to protect your family. I understand you don’t want Bluebelle’s juvie or criminal records exposed or Linc’s…predilections aired for all to judge, but I don’t understand how you settling down with a girl is supposed to stop all that. Won’t that make them just dig harder, turn more rocks?”

  My shoulder lifts. I’d said the same thing to my father when he suggested it. “My father’s new campaign manager thinks that focusing the limelight away from them and on myself and my love life will divert media attention from the more unsavory parts of Preston Mercer’s children’s lives.”

  “And because you’re Seattle’s unattached golden boy, well, one of them”—he smirks—“it will be a media frenzy if he’s supposedly settling down with someone serious. Drawing away from any negativity, right?”

  I nod slowly. “Something like that, yes.”

  “Well…shit. He may have a point there.”

  “My sentiments exactly.” I take another sip of my drink, savoring the slow burn.

  After a few beats of silence, Noah asks, “Have you already called Lianna?”

  “Not yet. I can’t make myself dial her number.”

  “What if I had an alternative to Lianna?”

  “What do you mean ‘an alternative to Lianna’?” I reply with hesitation.

  “Just what I said. I need to follow up on a couple of things, but what if I found you someone who is more than happy to play your girlfriend for a few months. Wouldn’t be free, of course, but it also wouldn’t land you back into Cruella Deville’s hands. Then shortly after the election, but not too soon so it looks staged, you two can have a very public breakup. Then you’re home free. No ties, no theknot.com, no forevers. You go back to your life, she goes back to hers. The end.”

  “Theknot.com? The fuck is that?”

  “I don’t know, some wedding shit that brides use. I caught Maris on it all the time when she was planning her wedding last year. Anyway, forget about that. What I’m proposing is a viable alternative to your problem. You help your dad, but you don’t sell yourself back to bridezilla in the process.”

  I sit back and study Noah for a minute, trying to process what he’s saying. “Are you suggesting I hire a whore?” I ask, my mind spinning.

  “Not…exactly.” The grin that splits his lips is mischievous.

  “Christ, Noah, I can’t hire a whore. What if that fell into Harrington’s hands? That would be far worse for my father than if it leaked that I enjoyed the occasional kink.”

  “Nothing would lead back to you, I promise. I would handle it all. Besides, she is not a whore.” If I wasn’t mistaken he sounded a little protective.

  “Then what is she? A do-gooder who just happens to need a little extra cash?”

  “I think maybe,” he answers thoughtfully. When I scowl, he adds, “Trust me, Merc. I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt you or Preston’s chances of reelection.”

  “How is it you know a woman like that anyway?” Like me, I know Noah beds a lot of women, but I’ve never known him to need to pay for one.

  Before he can answer, Gina returns to o
ur secluded corner with two fresh cocktails, one for each of us, although I didn’t order another one.

  “On me, babe.” She licks her lips then brushes them against the shell of my ear, placing her hand dangerously high on my thigh. “And by on me, I mean that literally. I’ve heard that Macallan tastes best when it’s licked straight from my pussy.”

  Jesus Christ. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across a woman so brash and bold and willing. While it should be a total turn-on, strangely it’s not. I like mine to leave something to the imagination. I even like to work for it a little.

  The corner of the club we’re in is relatively dark. Hell, we could probably take her right here without anyone being the wiser, but I can’t break my promise to my father, especially just seventy-two hours later.

  Can I?

  “Sorry, sweetheart. Appreciate the offer, but it’s not happening tonight.”

  I gently remove the hand that’s now stroking my denim-covered cock. The moment I do, her lips stop their trek across my jaw.

  “Shit,” I hear Noah murmur. He’s sorely disappointed.

  Gina’s face falls, and she straightens, looking angry. “But I thought—”

  “Hey,” Noah grabs her wrist and pulls her between his spread legs before settling his hands on her hips. “I’m still game if you are, doll.”

  “Yeah?” she asks tentatively, bobbing her eyes back and forth between us. I can see she’s still hoping I’ll change my mind.

  Noah reaches up and tilts her face back to meet his. “Yeah, but just a little one-on-one action, okay?”

  I watch him slide his hands leisurely over her curves until he reaches the hem of her skirt. His fingers disappear underneath as they crawl back up. Her breathing picks up when he tugs her closer and begins massaging what I imagine is her tight, bare ass. I know he’s sunk two fingers deep inside her undoubtedly soaked channel when her breath catches, her eyes flutter closed, and her mouth falls silently open.

  “Okay?” he prods again gruffly. His bicep flexes lightly with each slight pump of his hand. I adjust my rapidly hardening dick.