Barnes sneered at his insinuation into the conversation, just as he knew he would. “St. John,” he muttered with clear distaste. “I should have known you’d be lurking in the shadows.”
The two eyed each other as old animosities flared to life. Drae snorted a brittle laugh, churning at the man’s tone. “Yeah, I just bet you did.” Absently running his hand up and down Victoria’s back, he looked down at her where she stood silently by his side. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint.” She bit her lip as humor lit up her expression.
“I’ve just left your man. He’s done an excellent job of developing a new protocol for your employees that will limit access to the security mainframe. I take it Miss Bennett has informed you that the problem in your system was internal? The call literally came from inside the house, Barnes. You better get a hold of that if you don’t want the same thing to happen again.”
Drae watched, satisfied that his words had hit their mark. Tony Barnes was sadly mistaken if he imagined that he or Alex was going to shrug off the incompetence of the other man’s employees. Not at the cost of the agency’s reputation. No fucking way. And as for Victoria, the fact that Drae had yet to remove his hand from her back spoke louder than words.
“Yes, well,” Barnes growled, clearly not happy. “I will discuss this with my staff. In the meantime, let me extend an invitation to the both of you. There’s a pre-awards event in the main ballroom this evening. You’ll be my guests. I’ll leave instructions to seat you at the main table. I think you’ll enjoy the night. Half of Hollywood is here.”
Drae gave him a menacing smile. “I think we may take you up on the invite. Sounds like an interesting evening doesn’t it, Victoria?” Before she could answer, Barnes waved them off as if he’d wasted enough of his precious time on them and simply melted into the scenery.
“That man is a tool bag,” she muttered at his retreating back. Her choice of words made Drae laugh. He liked how direct she was. He also liked that she didn’t have any problem snarling at him when he deserved it. Everything about this sexier version of Victoria turned him inside out. It excited him that she’d responded to his loss of control earlier with such passion.
Some time later after a final run through with the security team, they were standing near the elevator when she leaned against him briefly and elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey,” she chuckled.
“Hey, right back at you. What’s up?”
“Were you serious about attending the event tonight?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why not? Might be tons of fun or boring as dry toast. Depends on who is in attendance.”
Tori thought back to the early, early morning. Before she’d been naked and whimpering in his arms. “Speaking of which, I saw that blonde actress, Stacey Adams checking in. She’s pretty much an A-lister. If Stacey is here in the hotel, so will other big name celebrities.”
Draegyn smiled at her. “Do you want to meet her?” he asked.
“Who?”
“Stacey Adams, of course. I could introduce you.”
Possessiveness roared through Tori’s senses. “You know her?”
“Yeah, I do. She’s quite a piece of work, that one.”
She tried for casual but when Draegyn said her knew her, a scenario worthy of a movie plot burst into her mind starring the man at her side and a very naked actress. She’d curl up and die if the perfect starlet had been in his bed. This was every nightmare she’d ever had. “How exactly do you know her?”
Guiding her into the empty elevator, Draegyn looked at her with a knowing expression. Shit. She was never very good at hiding her feelings. His blue eyes shimmered with an expression that bordered on hungry as he raked his gaze slowly over her body. Eventually he made it back to her eyes.
“We supervised security at the last Broadway awards show. She was a presenter. I helped the studio bodyguards get her in and out of the fan crush outside the venue.” His gaze pierced hers. She wondered if he could read her thoughts. “That’s all it was, sweetheart. Just business.”
He didn’t strike her as the sort to use endearments of any kind. The straight-forward explanation, clearly intended to set her mind at ease, reminded Tori that they were improbably more than just business associates now.
Silence reigned after that as the elevator ascended smoothly to their floor. A surge of excitement skittered across her nerves as they stepped into the foyer outside their suite and Draegyn placed a proprietary hand on her back. He wasn’t quite grabbing her ass, but it was close.
The minute they were through the door, Draegyn gathered Tori in his arms and settled her against him. She laid her hands on either side of his chest. He brought his hand to her mouth and ran his thumb across her full lower lip. “I want you,” he growled.
“I know.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile at her straightforward response. Brushing his lips along her jawline he told her, “I’m too old to pretend there hasn’t ever been anyone else in my bed, but I can say that there isn’t anyone out there who can lay claim to much more than the occasional fuck.”
She shifted back to look him square in the eye. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? ‘Cause it doesn’t.”
“Here’s the thing, Victoria. I don’t want to just fuck you, regardless of how this morning may have seemed,” he added as he held her in place. He leaned forward until his mouth stopped scant inches from hers. “Next time, and there will be a next time, and a time after that and a time after that - I’m going to eat you alive. Slowly. Until you can’t think, and all that’s left is you begging me to come inside you.”
She gasped at his audacity as a quiver of spine tingling awareness rocked her. One of his hands drifted over her bottom as his hips rocked gently against her belly. When his mouth claimed hers, the contact was so hot and fevered that Tori found herself gasping for breath. She folded like a house of cards in a windstorm. When his lips sucked and nipped their way down her neck she whimpered as the ache between her legs increased with each tug of his lips.
Everything about him was just as she knew it would be. Without even trying he completely dominated her to the point where she was reduced to a puddle of goo every time they touched.
“Draegyn,” she murmured. His eyes narrowed as he allowed some space between their bodies. “I’m not that girl. The one who drops her panties for any good-looking guy.”
“Are you saying I’m good-looking?” he interrupted with a rakish grin.
“No! I mean, yes, you devil. You are most definitely good-looking. It’s me I’m talking about.” She noticed her hands were grasping his lapels so she eased off and smoothed the jacket against his hard muscled chest. Looking up she underestimated the effect his glittering perusal would have on her attempt to explain. It would be so easy to just surrender to the reckless urgency driving her.
“Being with you, well - I’ve never done anything like this.” She pursed her lips and frowned, remembering the beating she’d taken in the press as a gold-digging femme fatale. As if, she thought. “No matter what you may have read about me, I’m not what you would call experienced.” There. She said it. He needed to understand that while she fell to pieces every time he touched her, nothing like that had ever happened to her before.
“Yeah. I know. And for the record, I don’t believe anything those rags print.” He cupped the side of her face and softly kissed her forehead. “Things are moving fast between us. Maybe too fast for you. I get it.”
Oh damn, she thought. The last thing she wanted was for him to back off, but her clumsy attempt to point out she wasn’t an easy lay was backfiring.
The quick change of subject that came next hit her like a bucket of cold water. She understood why he changed course, but she wasn’t happy about it.
“Do you have something short and sexy in that bag of tricks? I hope you do, because I’d like very much to escort you to the award event tonight.”
Ah, he was being a gentleman. How sweet and totally unnecessary. She rather liked
the primitive man.
Laughing she pushed against his chest forcing him to release her. “Short and sexy? Hmmmm. I do believe I have something fitting that description.”
He swatted her behind as she moved away making her stick her tongue out at him in turn.
“Don’t tempt me, woman!” he chuckled.
“Could I?” she asked innocently. “Tempt you, I mean.”
“Victoria,” he groaned. “Every damn thing about you is temptation.”
She beamed at his answer, did a quick curtsey, and then dashed off to her room. “How long do I have?” she asked over her shoulder.
“One hour, darlin’. You have one hour to get ready. After that, I kick your door down and take you in your birthday suit if I have to. Come to think of it,” he grinned, “that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
Drae was convinced he was on cloud nine. The evening was going even better than he could have imagined. With Victoria by his side, dressed in a little black dress that showcased her trim, toned body, he felt like a million bucks and was enjoying every minute of a gathering he would have normally avoided.
Barnes had kept his promise to seat them at the main table where they’d eaten, drank a ton of champagne, and happily hobnobbed with a superstar couple, the mayor of Los Angeles, two mega-powerful producers with arm candy dates, and a big time comedian just coming off a string of highly successful movies.
As the event wound down, he and Victoria found themselves at the bar with the comedian and his lady, a famous swimsuit model who turned out not to be anything like her professional persona. An unlikely pair, Garry and Shawn were well-matched once you got to know them. He, of course, was funny and clever in an intelligent way. Drae liked the man for not selling out to the Hollywood machine. Shawn was the surprise though. Learning she’d been a Rhodes Scholar in college, before she was discovered by a top modeling agent, meant she and Victoria hit it off in record time.
When the other couple suggested they take the party to a fifties supper club, the fun really got started. First they’d rather drunkenly commandeered a cab that required each of the women to sit on a lap in the close confines of the car. Drae would have happily driven all the way to New York if it meant Victoria would stay put with her luscious bottom sitting on his never ending hard-on.
At the club, they’d flashed a bit of V.I.P. gravitas and gotten a corner table away from the noise and commotion on the dance floor. The champagne kept flowing as did the lively chatter. It hadn’t taken much for Shawn and Victoria to run out on the dance floor when the band leader announced a ladies only set, while he and Garry sat back and watched their women literally dominate the room.
Victoria was one fucking surprise after another; a thought that warmed him considerably, not that any more heat was necessary. He was on fire with barely concealed arousal as it was. She was an accomplished dancer, moving with a grace and agility that pleased him very much. Now that she wasn’t shrouded in boring brown, he’d discovered the woman underneath all that camouflage, finding her exquisitely feminine and unbelievably sexy.
There was no way he’d be able to keep his hands off her once they were alone. She incited feelings in him that were deeply exciting. If it weren’t for the noisy, boisterous crowd around them he suspected he’d be throwing her on the chaise next to him and fucking her senseless. She did that to him. Made him imagine things that could not have been more out-of-character.
“Wow! That was great!” she laughed dropping down next to him. Crossing her long legs as the short black dress crept up her thighs until he saw the lace at the top of her sheer black stockings peeking out, Drae enjoyed the sight she made sitting there in the sexy outfit that gave her curves an audacious appeal and showcased her sweet backside. The black, platform heels that added inches to her petite frame made him think things that were going to get him in trouble.
He and Victoria drank even more champagne, laughed a lot, and watched bemused while fans fell over themselves to pose for selfies with the other couple. It was turning out to be a very good evening indeed.
“Are you going to ask me to dance?” she questioned breathlessly. “C’mon big guy. Best time to hit the dance floor is with a champagne buzz!” she giggled.
He shot her a lop-sided grin. Even though her excitement was infectious, he was in no condition to stand up at the moment. “Nope,” he chuckled. “No can do, milady.”
Clearly shocked by his refusal she grabbed the front of his suit jacket. “Why?” she cried. “Please, pleasssse, Draegyn. Dance with me.”
Drae reached for one of her hands, quickly brought it to his lips for a swift kiss, then lowered it into his lap where, beneath the table and out of anyone’s sight, he pressed her palm along the powerful erection pushing against his zipper. “That’s why.”
Her mouth formed a perfect circle as an understanding, “Ohhhhh,” hit his ears.
“Yes. Oh.” Her fingers shook, making Drae’s heart thump wildly. For seconds that were way too brief, she mapped his hardness through the fabric of his pants.
Eventually, she leaned forward, turning toward him and laid her elbow along the table so all he saw was Victoria in his line of sight. “Do you know what a binary system is?”
“What?”
“The binary system. Ever heard of it?” She looked absolutely serious and completely earnest as if they’d been discussing the elements of science all evening.
“Uh,” he sputtered, searching for a grasp on the change in conversation. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He shrugged. “I’ve heard the word, but can’t say that I know the actual definition.”
“Well,” she began in a tone that said she was explaining something complex to a newbie. “It’s a mathematical thing for counting or measurement involving the power of two. Like zero and one, or yes and no, on and off.”
“Ohhhh-kay.”
“I did part of my master’s thesis on the subject. Drove the review master crazy, too. He said I was employing female logic that in his estimation was illogical to the end result. Pissed me off, big time,” she bit out with a hair flip that would have done any reality show celebrity proud. “I think that was the moment my inner nerd connected with my outer temper. He just made me so frickin’ mad! He almost messed up my average by being such a prick. Threatened to disqualify the paper and everything because he couldn’t grasp the logic. I didn’t think it was fair to penalize a student for being smarter than the professor.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Drae agreed, nodding vehemently. “And I’m thinking you didn’t sit by quietly and let him shit all over your work, right?”
She smiled. A tiny quirk at first that blossomed into a wide grin that hinted at her wicked side. “No. No I did not.”
Victoria shifted her chair even closer, holding his amused gaze with hers. Using a top secret whisper she said, “A friend and I painted his office hot pink. Every wall. Put the whole office back exactly as he’d left it. The only thing different was the wall color. It was obnoxious!”
Drae threw back his head and laughed at her college antics while she giggled along. “Thanks for sharing!” he teased.
“Well. Did it work?”
“Did what work?” Drae glanced around the table looking for clues.
“Psychology 101. Thought redirect.”
He didn’t get it. Huh? He looked at her in confusion.
Loosing an exasperated sigh she threw her hands up in defeat. “Hello? Thought redirect? You know! The party in your pants? How’s that going? I’d check myself, but I think that would defeat the whole purpose.”
The light bulb went on over his head. “Let me get this straight…that whole story was meant to divert my, uh, attention – from the pants party?”
“Did it work?” she laughed. “I hope so because I really want to dance.”
A wolfish grin lit up his face. She was fucking priceless. “I think a dance or two is doable.” He reached out and twirled a chestnut curl around his fingers enjoying the slinky s
oftness whispering against his skin.
Rising to his feet, Drae tugged at his cuffs then extended his hand and asked her to dance. On the dance floor, he tucked her petite body close to his as they swayed to the songs of a slow set performed by the house band. In her sexy high heels she fit perfectly against him with her head curved into his neck. He held on to her like a dying man grabbing a life vest, with one hand low on her back just above the curve of her backside and the other clutching her dainty hand against his chest. He was in heaven. She tipped her head back and smiled at him. “Thank you, Draegyn.”
“For what?” he murmured lost in the soft glow of her chocolate eyes.
She gave him one of those Mona Lisa smiles that implied much but said little, then went back to nuzzling her face in his neck. He’d take it however he could get it, gathering her even closer, bending his head to breathe in her scent. Swaying together through the entire set, the music ended long before he wanted it to, forcing them apart. Grasping her hand as they walked back to their table, he marveled at how powerful such a simple touch could be. He wasn’t normally a hand holder but nothing seemed more natural, than the feel of her small hand clasped in his.
All hell had broken loose when they got back to their table as Garry and Shawn had apparently decided on the spur of the moment that a trip to the wedding chapel was in order. Drae wasn’t sure if they were serious or if their decision was based on Dom Perignon 1996. It didn’t really matter because the two were high on each other and their joy was infectious. Before Drae knew what was happening, they were once again in a cab with two excited, tipsy females sitting on their laps. Apparently nothing got women giddier than the idea of a wedding. Shawn looked radiant while Victoria beamed.
By the time they found a wedding venue that wasn’t tacky as all hell, things started happening with speed. Garry’s assistant materialized out of thin air along with a photographer to record the event. Shawn and Victoria disappeared briefly and when they returned, the bride was decked out in a floral headpiece and carrying a humongous bouquet of tropical flowers, courtesy of the on-site florist.
Fixing Justice Page 15