by Scott, D. D.
“That one,” Roxy said, jumping up from the couch then practically shoving the tip of her manicured pointer finger through the screen. “That’s the asshole who’s after us. Right there. Who the fuck is he? And what does he want with Audrey?”
“Reasonable questions,” Roman said, never flinching at Roxy’s ball-busting bravado.
While Roxy was on attack, Damian noticed how Jules simply covered Audrey’s shaking shoulders with her arms and pulled her into her protective and comforting hold.
Damian looked around the room, feeling the support of all their friends, knowing that even though there was someone very dark now once again on their trail, with this kind of friends they had a chance to beat ‘em…if they just knew who they were, like Roxy asked, and what the fuck they wanted with Audrey.
“The guy you’ve identified is a very bad man. A very dangerous man. Before I tell you what I know, I want to make sure, he’s our target,” Roman said, putting a new set of photos onto the screen.
“Those are from our mall trip today,” Roxy said, with a well-ain’t-that-the-shit tone to her voice.
“How did you get those shots?” Damian asked, suddenly much more impressed with Roman’s speed and apparent dedication to his job and thus, their safety.
Nothing had seemed to be working well up to this point…or maybe it was, since they were all still alive to be discussing it. But whichever the analysis, Damian didn’t have any doubts now as to Roman being one of the good guys. The guy was smart and he had connections and worked those angles fast.
“I obtained these video shots from mall security while you were at the show tonight. I need to make sure before I handle this threat that he’s our guy,” Roman said, looking at Roxy with a dark, almost sinister stare that quite frankly, disturbed Damian a great deal.
“That’s him. No doubts,” Roxy said, sitting back down next to Audrey who had still not said a word.
“Who is he?” Audrey suddenly spoke, although with such a tiny voice, if the room hadn’t been completely silent, none of them would have heard her.
“He’s Ludwig Kohn, a relative of, and let’s say business associate of, once-prominent Austrian banker Sonja Medici,” Roman said then looked at Audrey with a look Damian didn’t like at all, a look signifying something they both knew and none of the rest of them did.
Damian left his bar stool, and crossed the room to Audrey, standing guard behind her on the couch, resting his hands on her shoulders and stroking her hair. He wasn’t sure why, but for some reason he just had to be touching her, letting her know, no matter what, he was there for her and their children too.
“So what do those names mean to us?” Damian asked, somehow knowing it would be Audrey who answered.
“Sonja is the associate of my father who was implicated to be a key player in my father’s scheme because of the documents I found and handed over to the FBI,” Audrey said, reaching up to take Damian’s hand as he stroked the side of her neck.
“I think implicated isn’t quite strong enough,” Zoey jumped-in, coming to stand beside Roman and face them all.
“Ms. Medici has been accused by a civil suit, filed in the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, of conspiring for the last 23 years, with Audrey’s father, to funnel more than nine billion dollars out of Europe and into his immense, international Ponzi scheme,” Zoey said, beginning to pace the room, evidently picking up her partner’s habit.
“The documents I found,” Audrey continued in place of Zoey, “indicate that Sonja knowingly raised billions of dollars in cash to sustain my father’s scheme in exchange for at least 62 million in secret kickbacks.”
“That’s correct,” Roman broke-in, resuming his walk around the room with Zoey now at his heels. “We believe Sonja is now hiding out in Switzerland, perhaps to protect herself and her family from retribution from the Russian oligarchs she and your father pilfered from newly rich to pitifully poor.”
“So she’s sent this guy Ludwig to track Audrey. But why?” Damian said, not understanding why his Audrey was a target after she’d been cleared by U. S. Attorneys from any involvement in her father’s schemes.
“I think it’s hard for Sonja to believe, like it was for the United States’ agencies at first, that Audrey actually is clean,” Zoey said, a bit of hesitancy to her voice for good reason.
“But she is, dammit, she is,” Damian knew he was preaching to the choir but how were they going to get the rest of the world to listen.
“We know that, but…” Zoey began, before being interrupted.
“But the rest of the world doesn’t…because you’ve all insisted that I hide,” Audrey said, deciding right then and right there that her life of non-confrontation was over.
She got up from her safe and warm seat on the couch to walk the room full of love that she could take comfort in no matter what.
“I’m done with this,” she said, stopping to look at every single one of the people in the room, eye to eye.
“Do you all hear me? I’m done hiding,” she said.
She pulled off the J. Lo-style wig of gorgeous caramel-colored extensions she’d been wearing for their evening out at the theatre then threw it to the villa’s plush floor.
“Done with the wigs.”
She took off the thick, rich wool-woven shawl she’d covered her belly with tonight and tossed it to Roxy who appeared so shocked she actually kept her mouth closed.
“Done with the cover-ups.”
“Done living in a glass house, where obviously people find me but I’m not supposed to find them.
“That’s it. Do y’all hear me?” She asked then walked off the distance between the frame of the French doors to the terrace — walked back and forth once, twice, three times, before turning back to her now captive audience.
“What happens in Vegas…well…it ain’t stayin’ in Vegas this time.”
Audrey could feel her hands shaking, but she was proud she didn’t let her fear shake her voice.
No more would people simply waving or raising their voices, or coming up within a few feet of her, cause her to panic. Okay…maybe she’d panic a wee bit inside. But she sure as hell wasn’t gonna run and hide from ‘em anymore.
She was a Promo Ho, and she knew, better than anyone how to work it for just the right press coverage. People like the Kardashians of the world were the successes they were because people like her taught them how to be that way.
The press is not your friend, she knew that, and knew it not just from professional experience, but now from personal tragedy too.
But they certainly weren’t always the enemy either. It was all about using them to her clients’ benefit.
And now using them to her own benefit too.
Being non-confrontational may have seemed, in its harmlessly passive style, safe, but that’s precisely what Audrey now believed had done her in.
“I look guilty. Guilty of hiding something,” she said, popping in a couple dark chocolate kisses on her way past the candy dish on the bar top. “Why? Because I’m hiding myself too.”
“But, you know…”
Roman began, but Audrey quickly shut him down, “I’ve never questioned you, Roman, and all your other handlers. Well, at least not out loud. And Zoey’s not included in this. She’s had my back for several years now. Long before this circus started. So yeah. I guess I didn’t question her motives either. But the rest of you. No more blind following of your directives. Not anymore. It’s one of you and your own that’s busted my cover…”
“Wait a minute. You know I’m only in Vegas now because I think I’ve got that resolved or on its way to being resolved,” Roman said, not able to hide the defensiveness in his deep, dead serious tone.
“Thinking you have it resolved is no longer comforting to me, Roman,” Audrey said.
Seeing Damian rise from his seat, Audrey held up her hand, asking him with her firm, stop-gap gesture and her eyes, to just let her finish. She softened her rigid posture then gave him a q
uick wink, letting him know she loved him and appreciated him standing up for her, but that she knew what she was doing so for him to just please let her finish.
“Look. I appreciate more than I can ever say what all you and your team have done, not for just me, but for my family,” she said, locking eyes with Damian, then moving her hands in smooth comforting circles around the top then sides of her growing belly full of babies.
She then turned to look at all of their friends and continued, “It’s time for me to take a stand for myself. My brothers never were strong enough to set themselves apart from my parents. And look where they are now. About to take part of the fall with them. But I’ve always been strong enough to keep my distance. Perhaps silently. Non-confrontationally. But I’ve kept it. Now, it’s time to change tactics.”
Roman ran his hands through his thick head of hair.
“So what do you have in mind?” He asked her, even though the edge to his voice betrayed he was ready to give in to her wishes.
But he would. ‘Cause she was no longer playing by his rules. And if he tried to interfere with her plans, he’d learn that real quick.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my family, it’s that if you want control, you’ve got to let’s say buy it on your own terms,” she said, liking the slow, sexy as hell smile tipping up the corners of Damian’s mouth.
“I’ve got to show that this Baby’s got back. Or in our case Babies got back,” she said, tickled to hear giggles escape from both Roxy and Jules.
Roman and Zoey, however, weren’t laughing, but Audrey decided their career field made them lose track, rather quickly, of the humor in life. Something she thanked God she hadn’t lost, even despite her current Hell.
“I’m not afraid of Sonja Medici or Ludwig her goon,” Audrey said.
Okay. So she may be telling a small fib. She’d just blame it on her hormones.
That got her a yeah-right look from most everyone in the room too, so she’d better hurry up with a calm and collected follow-up or they’d quit taking her new bravado seriously.
“It’s time for me to stand my ground because I know what I want, and I know what I’ll lose if I don’t stand strong,” she said, once more getting back their full attention, undiluted by doubt.
“In my Ad World, it’s always about the next product, the next brand or slogan, the next cover story,” she continued, for the first time, knowing from the looks on their faces, that she had a completely all-ears audience.
“Well…this time, we’re not waiting to hear Willy Bush or Dario Lopez’ version of my story. Uh-huh. I’m about to tell my own story.”
Chapter Sixteen
“I still can’t believe you got Roman to go for this,” Damian said, cuddled up against Audrey in their bed.
Audrey sank into the heat of their bodies, conserved by the rich cotton sheets and thick down comforter.
It had been a long time since she’d felt this safe and secure, and she was amazed that that kind of comfort came only after she’d decided to open herself up more than ever.
How ironic that she’d found safety in life by baring it all for the public versus hiding behind her security team and friends.
She nuzzled into Damian’s strong, rock-hard muscles, taking additional comfort in the rise and fall of his super hard chest.
Knowing they were villa-bound for the next two weeks, part of her deal with Roman, her mind was busy thinking about various options for how they’d entertain themselves.
Freeing her soul from her handlers control had freed much more inside her. She suddenly had an urge, at a level completely foreign to her, to ravage this gorgeous hunk of a carpenter beside her in their bed.
Chalk it up to hormones. Her new BFFs.
She buried her head in his fluffy chest hairs, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his cologne, one of the few smells that still registered a-okay to her over-sensitized nose.
Nuzzling deeper against his skin, she felt his warmth fire across her cheeks then begin its descent to regions she longed to be filled by the rest of him.
Moving her fingers through the tiny curls of hair on his chest, then lower to those brushing his stomach with a light fuzz, her body trembled as she left his lower abdomen for the treats below.
Stroking her fingers along his entire, solid length, she entertained thoughts of using her tongue instead, knowing he’d never resist her desires.
“Careful there, Baby,” his hoarse, deeper-than-deep voice, now almost a growl, found her ear. “You might get more there than you bargained for.”
“Oh, I doubt it,” she teased, feeling his fingers blaze a trail of heat along the insides of her thighs, before they came to rest at the edge of where her sanity would come undone at his touch. “I think you’re the one about to be taken advantage of despite this rather large belly between us.”
Damian laughed that sweet, slow humorous drawl Audrey had come to not just love but think was hotter-than-hot at the same time. That lush sound made her relax at the same time it activated everything she was as a woman and as the mother-to-be of his children.
It was such a remarkable thing that neither of them had lost their senses of humor. Because their crazy-scary life, and now their first attempt at pregnancy love-making in trimester two, both demanded it.
“All I know,” Damian said, while lavishing the sides of her neck with delicious kisses that tickled while at the same time titillated her wildest fantasies, “is that I’m really lovin’ the whole sex drive thing during the second trimester.”
It was Audrey’s turn to laugh, between gasps of ecstasy, as Damian’s mouth gently, ever so gently, since he knew how tender they were, found her nipples, his tongue making playdates out of ‘em both.
With each lick and sweep of the tip of his tongue, coupled with his sweet hot breath then blowing across the wet surfaces in his wake, she about came undone.
She stroked him with a much firmer hand, keeping the increased pressure as a diversion from the sweet volcano about to erupt between her legs.
With a little creativity, she thought, they were making love during pregnancy very, very rewarding.
With all the extra blood flowing to her lower region, Audrey had learned to adjust to having orgasms multiple times. She just couldn’t hold ‘em in. Sometimes, just their foreplay alone sent her over the edge. And judging by the high she was now on, this time would be no exception.
“I’ve got a few moves I’d like to try,” he whispered in her ear, following his sweet suggestion with a teasing swipe of his naughty, naughty tongue.
“Oh yeah?” She asked, wondering what delightful kinds of tricks he’d probably gotten from their favorite sex therapist of the extended family. “Did Aunt Tulip hook you up?”
“Perhaps,” Damian said, suddenly disappearing from his pillow.
She felt him kiss the top then sides of her belly and then felt his curly head of hair brush hers as he came to rest between her legs then smoothly moved them apart.
“I think it’s time we do our Kegels,” he said, his eyes meeting hers with a rowdy grin forming across his head before he dipped in.
“So you’re willing to help me tone my pelvic floor muscles?” She asked, barely able to get the words out through the gasps caused by his unexpected exercise assistance.
“Remind me to hire you for my personal trainer,” she said, again with her breath battling with her ability to form words.
She tensed the muscles around her vagina like their doctor had taught them she needed to do for the exercises, trying to count off the ten seconds she’d been supposed to be building to, but was now unable to do, thanks to Damian’s tongue wreaking sweet havoc.
She tightened again, hearing his moan as he worked her through several more attempts.
He kept at her, the combination of his hands and mouth, sending her over the edge twice before he gently raised himself so that he was now above her, looking into her eyes, asking her silent permission to have her for his own.
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“I want you so bad,” she said, panting for the extra oxygen to keep up with him. “And we sure won’t be doing this…the next trimester. So you’d better not hold anything back.”
“And you’re sure this isn’t gonna bump against our babies’ heads?” Damian asked, the cutest bit of hesitation clouding the heated desire in his brilliant blue eyes.
“No worries,” she said, smiling her reassurance, letting the wicked pleasure she knew had to be all-knowing and all-shining in her eyes egg him onto more.
“Actually, did you read that chapter saying our babies enjoy the gentle rocking of my orgasms and the feel of our rhythm shaking their world a bit?” She asked, loving how now, when they made love, they did talk, and it was okay to do that, cause they both had so many fears and uncertainties about the whole lifestyle of being pregnant.
“Who needs rocking horses then, right Baby?”
Damian followed his wisecrack with a throaty laugh, a laugh that on its own, about sent Audrey over her mountain top of pleasure…yet again.
She had to have him. And now.
She took his hot and hard, silky length and slipped it into its home, deciding another Kegel exercise might really get him going.
With another quick, surprise squeeze of her pelvic floor, she had him.
He reared back his head and filled their bedroom with his sexy, sexy laugh then drove the rest of the way home, taking her with him for one wild, wild and super-hot ride.
Exercise had never been sooo much fun.
Chapter Seventeen
Enjoying a glass of juice on the chaise lounge she’d adopted along the edge of their private pool, Audrey relived every little detail of the passionate night she and Damian had shared.
Pregnancy had definitely given a boost to her libido in this second trimester. ‘Course it had sure as hell done the opposite the first three months, so she’d been long overdue for a night like last night.