by Lucia Jordan
“I’m not here for the food. Look, I can make it worth—”
“Miss?” a woman at a four-top table to Lacey’s left called out, holding up an oversize mug. “Can we get some refills over here?”
“Excuse me.” Lacey went to fetch the refills. Steve Lee got up and followed her to the counter. “I’ll be right with you as soon as I take care of these.”
“I don’t want anything else.” He slapped a ten on the counter. “Come on, Miss Easton. Take a break, answer a few questions and I’ll get out of your hair.”
“You’re trying to bribe me with ten dollars? Seriously?”
“Oh, I can do a lot better.” He grinned and put a fifty down next to the ten. “Tell you what. You let me know when I get to the right amount for an inside exclusive on Wolfe.”
Lacey gave up and took care of the refill orders. When she came back to the counter she saw Lee had laid out more fifties and several hundreds.
“A thousand bucks. All the cash I have on me,” he told her. “What do you say?”
Moving to Denver had left Lacey almost broke. The money on the counter would pay rent for two months and allow her to eat something other than cheap microwave dinners and leftovers from the cafe.
Still, as poor as she was, she wasn’t an idiot. “Why are you doing this?”
“No one at Wolfe International will tell me why you quit your job and left town on the same day,” Lee said. “Rumor is it had to do with Wolfe wanting you to take more than dictation.” He waited for her to respond. “Give me an exclusive, and I’ll double it. Two grand.”
Now she had to lie for Christopher — again. “Mr. Lee, I don’t know anything about Mr. Wolfe. He certainly had nothing to do with me leaving Denver. I moved to Boulder to get out of the city and pursue some new opportunities.”
“Opportunities in what? Coffee grinding? Sandwich making?” He leaned close to her. “I can see this is painful for you. You don’t have to be a victim. Stop protecting this guy. Whatever Wolfe did to make you leave town, he should pay for it.”
Lacey looked into his tiny, greedy eyes. “Like I said, I worked at his company for only a few weeks as a temp. Honestly, I don’t know the man at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other customers waiting.”
She didn’t bother to watch the reporter stalk out of the cafe as she went to a table newly occupied by four giggling college girls. “Welcome to the Java Joint. Can I start you girls off with a latte?”
*
“I’d buy you a drink, but it doesn’t look like you’re drinking.”
Christopher Wolfe looked up from the scotch he hadn’t touched to give his dominatrix friend Nadia Zellwood a half-hearted smile. “I did enough of that last week, I think. Join me anyway.”
Nadia sat down beside him and took a sip from her daiquiri before surveying the other occupants of the bar. While strictly members-only during the week, Denizens opened to the public on the weekends, which always attracted the curious, the daring, and the deluded.
“I hate coming here on the weekends. Why do the normals believe we dress like Batman, Catwoman or the Grim Reaper?” Nadia asked as she watched a couple in skin-tight spandex posing and taking selfies with their phones. “And why are you here alone, Christopher? You should be home with your redhead.”
“She’s gone.” Now he took a swallow of his scotch. “She left town the same day she quit working for me.”
“So this is why you’ve been in such a filthy mood.” Nadia sighed. “Where is she?”
“Boulder.” Tracking her down had been the first thing he’d done. Then he’d waited for her to find a secretarial job so he could go after her for violating her contract with Anytime Office Temps. “She’s waiting tables in a coffee shop.”
“Submissives always seem to gravitate to menial jobs where they serve others, don’t they? When he was younger, my David worked in a nail salon. Even now he still does beautiful work.” Nadia held up her hand for him to admire her perfectly-manicured nails. “So why did she run away from you?”
“She discovered I’m a heartless, manipulative bastard who lied to her.” He drained his scotch and caught the eye of a passing waitress by holding up the empty glass. “She’s not coming back, Nadia. She despises me.”
“If that was true she wouldn’t be only thirty minutes away from you but let’s table this discussion for a moment,” his friend warned, and nodded toward a heavyset man weaving his way toward them. “Denver’s sweatiest scandal monger is about to intrude.”
“Evening, Mr. Wolfe,” Steve Lee said as he eyed the empty chair beside Nadia. “You’re a tough man to track down. Mind if I sit down?”
“We do,” Nadia said, giving the perspiring man a sleepy smile. “Go away.”
Lee pulled out a notepad and pen and plopped in the chair. “There’s a story going around about your former personal assistant being fired on unwarranted grounds. Care to comment?”
“Miss Bonner was terminated for multiple violations of company policy,” Christopher told him. “End of comment.”
“I’m not talking about her. I mean Lacey Easton.”
Christopher forced himself to relax. “Miss Easton was not fired. She resigned.”
“But you never really hired her, did you?” Lee said. “According to my source, after you got rid of Bonner, you bought a small-time agency where Easton worked. Why did you do that, Mr. Wolfe? Was it, say, so you could force her to take a job she’d already turned down?”
“I invest in many interesting ventures. The details are always confidential. So are terms of employment at Wolfe International. Who is your source?”
“Sorry, that’s confidential, too. I’m sure you understand.” Suddenly he yelped, jerked and then went very still.
Christopher saw that his Nadia had her hand between Lee’s legs — which meant Lee was probably in a world of pain. “Nadia.”
“I think confession is good for the soul and, in Mr. Lee’s case, the testicles.” She twisted. “Who told you these things?”
“This is assault,” he wheezed in a tiny voice. “I’ll press charges.”
“I’m a dominatrix, you sweaty little man,” Nadia purred. “I’ll tell them you came here and paid me to do it. Since several important city officials are my clients, they’ll believe me. Now who is your source? Lacey Easton?”
“No,” Lee said through his clenched teeth. “I got an anonymous tip I thought came from her but when I went to see her in Boulder she wouldn’t talk. Not even after I offered her two grand. She pretended like she didn’t know you at all.”
Nadia put her mouth next to his ear, murmured something, and then released him. Lee got to his feet and left the bar as fast as he could stagger.
“What did you say to him?”
“Something that will have him sweating for another week or two.” She took a small bottle of hand sanitizer from her purse and used it. “Tell me something. If Lacey hates you now, why is she still protecting you?”
“She’s a kind, decent woman.”
“No woman is that kind. She is still in love with you. That leaves only two questions.”
The waitress delivered new drinks. “Which are?”
“Why are you still here? And, who can I persuade to drink your wretched scotch?”
“I’ll take it.”
Christopher looked over at the cloaked woman sitting at the next table. His temper rose as she pulled back her hood and revealed her blonde hair and pale features. “You can’t have it, Nora.”
“Miss Bonner, what a surprise. Where is your photographer friend? Or were you planning to take the dirty pictures yourself this time?”
“If you want dirty pictures” — she rose and tossed an envelope onto their table — “you’ll love these.”
Christopher opened the envelope, and took out glossy photos doctored to show him and Lacey having very graphic sex. “Nora, you really need to find a different hobby.”
“Someone is planning to send them to Steve Lee. He
will definitely publish them,” Nora said. “I can put a stop to that. I will, just as soon as I see our engagement announcement on the front page of the business section on Monday morning.”
Christopher laughed and shook his head.
“I would not start picking out invitations, Miss Bonner.”
“If I don’t see that announcement then they will be published, here and online and in every tabloid in the supermarket. They’ll also be handed out as flyers to every customer walking into a certain coffee shop in Boulder. You have forty-eight hours.” She pulled the hood back over her head and sauntered out of the club.
“And they call dommes vicious,” Nadia murmured.
Christopher took out his mobile and called his driver. “Jeffrey, pick me up at the club. Also, call my housekeeper and have her pack a bag for me. I’m driving to Boulder tonight.”
*
Lacey finished sweeping before she went back into the kitchen and looked in the tiny office where the manager was counting out the till. “Do you need me for anything else, Mrs. Brown?”
“No, thanks, Lacey,” the manager said. “Have a good weekend.”
Lacey buttoned up and walked out the back door, which automatically locked behind her. To save money, she had started taking the bus to work, although it meant sometimes waiting a half hour at the bus stop in the chilly night air. She’d had a good bunch of customers that day. The tips she’d made would allow her to splurge on some takeout this weekend.
As Lacey emerged from the alley, a dark car pulled up to the curb and parked there. She skirted around it, quickening her step as she heard the driver’s door open behind her.
A terribly familiar voice called out, “Come here.”
She spun around to see Christopher Wolfe standing by the car. “Go to hell.”
She walked as fast as she could toward the bus stop. Before she reached it, he caught up with her.
“Lacey,” Christopher said. “I have to talk to you. It’s important.”
“Leave me alone.”
He sat down beside her on the bus stop bench. “I’m sorry but I can’t do that.”
She stared stonily at the passing traffic. “Sure you can. You get in your car, you drive thirty miles in the opposite direction and you forget about me.”
“I will go back to Denver.” He took her cold hand and warmed it between his. “But I can never forget you or how you hair catches fire in the light or the taste of your skin or the sounds you make when I stroke your back, or — “
“That’s enough.” She snatched her hand away. “What do you want? Just tell me.”
“We need to talk about that reporter who came to see you. Let me drive you home.”
If she didn’t go with him, Lacey knew he would get on the bus so he could follow her there. “Fine, but keep your hands to yourself.”
Christopher’s car was a beautiful black Audi. The inside smelled of leather and his own woodsy scent. The heater warmed Lacey’s cold hands and feet within a minute.
“Why did you lie to Steve Lee about us?” Christopher asked as he merged into traffic.
“You’re kidding, right? I’m not proud of how easily you duped me and used me, Christopher. I don’t want my parents to read about it in some paper.”
“So you were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.” Absently she read a road sign as they passed it and realized something. “How do you know how to get to my apartment?”
“My security people tracked you here and obtained it for me.” He glanced sideways at her. “I wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“You wanted to find me and con me into your bed again. Or punish me for leaving you or something you think I did or whatever. I can’t do this. Stop the car and let me out. I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“I haven’t told you everything yet,” he said as he turned onto the road leading to her apartment complex. “Nora Bonner is back.”
Lacey’s throat tightened and tears welled up in her eyes. “She’s your problem, not mine.”
“You’re right, she is.” Christopher parked outside her apartment building. “This looks like a nice place.”
“No, it doesn’t.” She blinked fast to keep her tears at bay. “If Nora is trying to blackmail you again, you should really go to the police. Thank you for the ride.” She walked quickly to her door but he was right behind her. “I’m very tired.”
“So am I. Give me your keys.”
When she did, he unlocked her door and followed her inside.
Lacey cringed a little as she turned on the lights, which revealed the shabbiness inside. “I don’t have a coffeemaker yet, but I can make some instant. Or some tea.”
“Instant coffee is fine.”
Her mobile rang as she was preparing the coffee. She took it out of her pocket to see Sarah Tate’s number. She hadn’t answered any of her other calls but most of her anger was gone now. “Hello?”
“I didn’t think you would answer. Lacey, I have to tell you something I heard from Jack. Nora is blackmailing Christopher with photos of you having sex with him.”
“They’re just more fakes,” Lacey snapped.
“I know but she’s not going after him this time,” Sarah said. “She’s threatening to use them to destroy your life. This time I think she’ll really do it. She knows you can’t afford to do anything to stop her.”
Lacey rubbed her eyes. “So what does she want? Money?”
“Nadia was there when Nora confronted Christopher,” Sarah said. “She told Jack that Nora demanded Chris announce their engagement in the newspapers by Monday morning, or she’ll give the pictures to some reporter named Steve Lee.”
“He won’t do it.”
“Listen, I know you’re through with all of us, but Christopher loves you. He’ll do anything to protect you. Even if it means marrying that witch.” Her tone grew urgent. “You have to talk to him, Lacey — and then I think you need to leave Colorado. Go stay with your parents until this blows over.”
“Okay. Thanks.” She switched off the phone and dropped it on the counter.
Christopher came up behind her and placed his hands gently on her shoulders to turn her around. “Why are you crying?”
“I came here to make a new start but I can’t.” She made a show of looking around her dingy little kitchen. “This place is awful. I don’t know anyone. I can’t find a good job. I think I need to move out of state.”
“This is all because of me.” He pressed her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
Lacey couldn’t bear it anymore. She clutched his sleeves and wept.
Christopher carried her over to her threadbare sofa, sitting down on it with her in his lap. He held her there and let her cry, making soothing noises as he rubbed her back and shoulders.
Lacey’s sobs dwindled and then stopped as she cuddled against him, feeling truly safe for the first time since she’d left Denver. She uttered a watery chuckle when he handed her his embroidered handkerchief to mop up and blow her nose.
“You okay?” he asked her. When she nodded he smiled a little. “Is it my turn now?”
“You wouldn’t cry over me,” she chided but when she looked in his eyes she saw an over-bright gleam. “Christopher?”
“I was so angry when I found out you left me for good,” he admitted. “I started planning how I could get you to come back to me so I could punish you for hurting me. And then that idiot reporter told me what you said. That you didn’t know me at all. Lacey, you’re the only woman who knows me. The only one who has ever loved me — not my money or my power or what I can do for you, but me. I didn’t see that before. I do now.”
“It isn’t all on you. I’m so ashamed of how I behaved when I left. I was so angry I didn’t think. I just wanted to hurt you.”
He nodded and cradled her cheek with his hand. “What about now?”
Now she had to get as far away from him as she could. Before she did, she wanted her last memory of him to be a
good one.
“I think we’ve both wrecked most of the possibilities.” She took his hand and pressed it over her breast so he could feel the frantic throb of her heartbeat. “But I still want you. I think I will forever.”
“Do you trust me to take care of you, just for tonight?” When she nodded, he trailed his fingers down the row of buttons on her blouse. “Then let me have you. Let me give you tonight.”
She lifted her hands to her blouse, unfastening the buttons to reveal her bra. Christopher tugged down one cup, bending his head to cover her nipple with his mouth. He rubbed his tongue over the hard peak before he sucked at it. The gentle tugging made Lacey groan and shiver.
“Easy, sweetheart.” He pushed her down onto her back and straddled her, opening her bra so he could fondle her breasts. “I dreamed about touching you a few nights ago.” He opened the front of his trousers and showed her his erect penis. “I started jerking off and closed my eyes and pretended it was you,. My fist is nothing like your hot, wet mouth or your tight little pussy.”
The sight of his hard cock made it impossible for Lacey to wait. “Can I suck you now?”
“I want you naked first.” Christopher went to work on her clothes. Instead of yanking or tearing them off, he unwrapped Lacey’s body as if it were a present. He pressed kisses to her skin as he bared it, dipping his tongue into the dimple of her navel and nipping the inside of her thigh.
Lacey gripped the sofa cushions tightly. She was so excited she couldn’t hold perfectly still. When he slid her panties down to her knees, she rolled her hips and parted her legs in a wordless invitation.
“My sweet, sexy Lacey.” He sat back and combed his fingertip through her fiery pubic hair. “Give me another minute.”
Lacey strip down to his skin, her eyes tracing the contours of his muscles and the swollen spike of his cock. She could hardly believe this was happening. Even if she regretted tomorrow, she’d relish this last chance to be with the master she loved tonight.
“Turn on your side,” Christopher said. When she did he did the same in the opposite direction, so that his face touched her thighs and his cock grazed her chin. “Open your mouth for me, sweetheart.”