Queen of Hearts

by Jami Denise

  He nodded, his body stiff and his lips pressed into a tight line. He was angry and worried about me. He could sense that I was close to completely melting down.

  “Sweetheart, wait for me up front. Do not leave the restaurant. I’ll only be a minute.”

  He kissed the top of my head and I walked away, not bothering to look back. My legs were on autopilot. Every motion was an involuntary reaction. Everything else was numb.

  As promised, he walked up not even two minutes later and held out his arm. “Let’s get you home,” he said.

  I couldn’t look at him. Tears were already spilling, and I could feel the coarse itch in the back of my throat. I was dying to break out in sobs. There had never been another time in my life when I’d been so terrified.

  As soon as the stiff, warm air hit me, I lost it. I grabbed onto him, my legs going out from underneath me.

  “I need you. You can’t leave me. You can’t listen to her. There has to be another way. I won’t let you do this. Not after everything we’ve been through to get here!”

  I collapsed in his arms, letting all the confusion and panic take over. The fighting, fucking, playing, and the running was over. I more than needed him. He’d become vital to my existence. I couldn’t imagine that all the hurt and pain we’d endured would end with me being without him. We’d come too far to let the idea and vengeance of a bitter old woman tear us apart. I wouldn’t let it happen.

  “Baby, calm down. Jesus. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You can’t,” I sobbed. “I love you. I tried to hate you. I tried to pretend you weren’t as significant as you are. I wanted to forget, but I never will, Flynn.”

  “Shh.” He soothed my back, rubbing his hand up and down gently, and held me against his chest. I don’t think I’d ever felt more afraid in my life.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked against my ear.

  “Yes.”

  “How much do you trust me? Enough to let me deal with this?”

  I pulled back and grabbed his face in the palms of my hands, digging my fingers in deep. “I trust you with everything. I swear it.”

  He nodded, his face serious and his eyes dark. “Do you understand why I try to keep things from you? It’s to protect you from bullshit like this. Everyone has a plan, Jayne. You have to trust me to handle this.”

  I nodded. “I don’t want to be without you again.”

  He stared at me for a long moment and then smiled. “You trust me completely?”

  I laughed through my tears and wiped the moisture away from my face. “I said I did. Now is not the time for me to stroke your ego.”

  Moving his hand to my face, he rubbed his thumb underneath one eye and then the other. “Come on. I can’t take you crying like this anymore. Let’s go home.”

  ~~***~~

  After a long shower, we crawled into bed, exhausted and reflective. I couldn’t get close enough to him. My body clung to him, so afraid of letting him out of my sight. We lay there, both of us lost in our own thoughts, tangled up in each other.

  My mind was anything but calm. I was afraid to fall asleep, knowing I was going to be riddled with nightmares. Cherese forced my worst-case scenario into the forefront of my head, and I couldn’t shake the dreadful feeling.

  “Did you really want to hate me?” he murmured, breaking the morbid silence.

  I took a deep breath and nuzzled my cheek against his chest. “I couldn’t deal with things, Flynn. I was angry and hurt. My father was dead, I thought you and Vince were dead, and then Collins comes to me with that letter. I felt like I’d been the brunt of some cruel joke. I never wanted to fall in love with you in the first place. I was lost.”

  His hand made a lazy pattern up and down my arm, and it centered me, helped me open up about things I’d rather keep bottled up and forget.

  “I would change things if I could. I would go back and do things differently, Janie. I’m not proud to admit that I was obsessed with you, and you were right when you told me I was in love with an idea—not you. But that changed. The first night I had you here, it changed. The moment you walked out of my suite, I knew I had to be with you. The way I felt when the door shut...” He sucked air through his teeth, and I felt him shake his head. “You weren’t an idea anymore. I saw the conviction, the confidence in your eyes, and I knew.”

  I sniffled. “I knew it, too. I felt it.”

  He rolled us so that he was perched above me. “Why did you fight me?” He smirked, but his eyes were serious.

  “I was afraid,” I admitted. “You don’t fall in love with your clients. You don’t befriend them, and you don’t allow them into your life. Rules of the game. You threw me off, and it terrified me. There’s a certain balance you have to maintain as a prostitute. To keep yourself safe.”

  “Liar.”

  My eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re a liar. You were friends with Alonzo, and you’re friends with Pamela. How many others do I need to worry about?”

  I huffed out a frustrated breath. “There are always exceptions.”

  I didn’t even believe myself. I maintained friendships with many of my regular clients. He was forcing me to admit how deeply it went for me from day one. I thought I’d made it clear.

  “I wasn’t an exception?”

  He was teasing me. “You were an exception. You were a jerk, and I didn’t like you.”

  He smirked and rubbed his already hard erection against me. “You wanted me.”

  I rolled my eyes and tried to push him off me. “You didn’t want me, remember?”

  Grabbing my hands, he pushed them above my head and pressed his body against mine so I couldn’t move. “Oh, I wanted you. Too much.” He kissed the shell of my ear and ran his tongue down, pulling the skin of my neck into his mouth and sucking. “I would have torn you up, sweet Jayne.”

  I squirmed underneath him, needy and desperate. He wasn’t done, however.

  “I already had it planned. I thought about what I’d do to you the whole time I waited. For years, I knew what I’d do with you if I ever had the chance,” he whispered, sucking and marking the other side of my neck. With his mouth back to my ear, he whispered again. “Don’t fucking move.”

  He released my hands, and I did as I was told. I couldn’t have moved at that moment if I tried. I was boneless and completely and willingly at his mercy.

  His mouth moved from one side of my chest to the other, his eyes on mine as he kissed and licked my breasts. My pussy throbbed, so ready for him to make me feel every inch of him. I could tell, however, that he was going to make this last.

  His hands replaced his lips and I whimpered, raising my hips to meet his, anxious for relief. “I wanted you on your knees with those red lips staining my cock. I wanted to watch those big eyes while I fucked your mouth. Until I saw you standing there, all I could think about was watching my dick disappear and feeling myself in the back of your throat.”

  “Fuck,” I whined. “Please!”

  He chuckled, his chest rumbling with the vibrations. “Please what, Jayne? Please fuck your mouth?”

  “Yes!” I cried out. As badly as I wanted him inside me, the thought of having him in my mouth and my hands was too much.

  “Mmm, maybe later,” he drawled as he continued to nip at my throat. “I’m not finished.”

  His hand made a slow trail down my chest, across my belly and lower until he cupped my warmth. A zing of excitement rushed through me and again, I bucked my hips against him.

  “I wanted to let you suck me until I was ready to blow, and then turn you over on all fours and plunge my cock into that little pink pussy. I was going to fuck you hard, hard enough to make that ass shake and your legs quiver. I tried to imagine how wet and warm you were going to feel wrapped around my cock.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  My mind was blown. To think he was fantasizing about all of that but ended up barely touching me. I remembered leaving that room so disappointed and angry. I
couldn’t imagine what the hell held him back.

  “I decided I wanted to own you instead. It was no longer that important to fuck you. I needed to have you.”

  He pushed into me, and my back arched off the mattress as I groaned. “You have me,” I said breathlessly. “You always have.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  I looked back over my shoulder and smiled at Flynn. He was fresh out of the shower and deliciously drippy.

  “I’m heading over to visit the girls. I’ve only been to the office once, and I have some things I want to handle.”

  I watched through the mirror as he approached, slowly shaking his head. “No you’re not.”

  I gave him an admonished look. “Excuse me?”

  He stood behind me, folding his arms over his bare chest and frowning. “I thought we discussed this? You told me you would let me deal with things my way. You don’t have any reason to go there.”

  I pulled the brush through my hair and rolled my eyes. “I thought we had a deal, or were you even listening to me? I don’t like your father’s assholes dealing with those girls. They are not happy ladies, and they are potentially in danger being under their thumbs. Those men have no compassion or feelings for them. They’re forcing themselves on many of the girls. That’s not fair to them. Vince never treated them that way, and they are scared.”

  He shrugged. “So let them go somewhere else. They should’ve left when Vince was out of the picture. That’s their problem.”

  I slammed the brush down on the counter and turned to face him, mirroring his stance. “No. It’s my problem. Do you understand how different things would have been for me, doing what I was doing if Vince hadn’t been there to back me up? Let me tell you—very different. So, yes, it’s my problem. I won’t let them think they’ve been thrown to the wolves. I have some associates, and I’m going to suggest they contact them instead of staying where they are. Vince and I talked the other day, and he’s decided he has no interest on continuing to work with girls. He doesn’t want any harm to come of them, either, but he’s done. I’m doing this for him, for me, and for those girls. Most of them have no one else in the world to care about whether they live or die. Think about it.”

  His jaw muscles jumped as he gritted his teeth. “Give them the numbers, and get the fuck back here. I don’t want you involved any deeper than that. Understand?”

  I turned away from him. I didn’t want to fight. Things had been pretty much ideal as far as we were concerned, even amid the lingering trouble with his father. We were solid and happy and in love. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe we’d never fight, but we’d already done enough of that. I just wanted some peace.

  “Last I knew, my dad was dead. Are you going to take away my keys? Ground me?”

  He let out an angry chuckle and grabbed my shoulders, spinning me around to face him. “You remember telling me you couldn’t lose me? Don’t you think I feel the same? I’m not trying to be a dick, but if you push me hard enough, I will tie you up and lock you in the bedroom for peace of mind. I love that you’re so fervent about this and about the girls, but what you feel is nothing compared to the way I feel about you and your safety.”

  My lips pulled up into a smirk. “If you wanted to tie me up, all you had to do is whip out the rope.”

  He didn’t reply. He wrapped his arms around me, lifted me off the floor, and carried me into the other room. Setting me on the bed, he stood back and shook his head.

  “Can you not be a pain in the ass today? For the love of God, Jayne, just stop pushing my buttons.”

  I leaned back on my elbows, lifted my knees, and spread my legs. “I love pushing your buttons.”

  His eyes wandered my body, and I was almost disappointed I hadn’t worn a dress. It would’ve been much more effective in my quest to get my way.

  “I’m sending Vince over to make sure you don’t leave alone. I have a meeting with some of my father’s associates, and I don’t need to be distracted, and you, my love, are too fucking distracting.”

  I let my legs sway, giving him a nice glimpse of what was going on underneath my shorts, but he was all business. My attempts were in vain.

  “What is this meeting all about? Is it safe?”

  He leaned over me and gave me a loud smack on the lips. “You just keep your ass where you’re safe, and you let me handle this. This is just a quick meeting to collect money. The more things seem normal to them, the less trouble they become. As long as they think I’m handling my father’s business as usual, they won’t become a problem.”

  “Okay,” I said, sighing. “I guess I could find some trouble to get into with Vince and Kelsey instead.”

  Pressing his forehead against mine, he rubbed my nose with his. “Take Kelsey shopping or something. Just make sure Vince is with you.”

  ~~***~~

  We ended up sitting by the pool all afternoon. Kelsey was feeling under the weather and not up to shopping, which was fine with me. I was in no mood to shop either.

  There were only a few people in the pool area, so Vince didn’t find it necessary to scare everyone off the way Flynn did. Unfortunately, Flynn’s little blonde piece was out there again, and just seeing her made me ill.

  “Why do you even care?” Vince asked when I voiced my displeasure.

  “I don’t trust her. I mean, why the hell is she still hanging around when he clearly wants nothing to do with her? Isn’t that strange to you?”

  Folding his arms behind his head, he smiled. “She knows he likes a chase. Can you blame her for trying to get at him? He’s fucking rich. That’s what women want. Money.”

  I sat up and leaned over to face him. “That’s not entirely true. I don’t.”

  He moved his sunglasses down over his nose and narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t?” He let out a snicker and shook his head. “O-kay.”

  I sat straight up, pissed off and ready to set him straight. “If all I wanted was money, I would have never left. I don’t give a damn about his money, Vince. Do you see me running around here dripping in jewels and fur coats?”

  “This is Vegas, not New York City.”

  “Shove it up your ass. You know what I mean.”

  I lay back down and looked over at Kelsey. “Men are stupid idiots. Mark that down in your mental notes. Stupid. Fucking. Idiots.”

  She giggled. “Noted.”

  “I’m out of here,” he announced. “I have some calls to make, so you two can sit out here and talk shit all you want.”

  He pulled his T-shirt over his head and walked away, pissed off and acting like a big baby. I wasn’t sure what his problem was, but I was pretty sick of moody men.

  Not only that—he was wrong, and I wanted him to apologize. He knew me better than that.

  “What’s his problem?” I asked Kelsey.

  She sighed. “I’m not sure. He’s been really moody ever since we came to stay here. He barely talks to me.”

  He was an idiot. Plain and simple. “They have a lot going on right now. I think the pressure is getting to them. He shouldn’t take it out on you, though. I’m a bitch, so it’s different.”

  “I think he’s sick of babysitting me,” she murmured. “He probably can’t wait to get rid of me.”

  “And you don’t want to get rid of him, right?”

  She gave her head a quick shake. “Not at all.”

  I didn’t know what to tell her. I was the last person to dish out relationship advice, and I wasn’t entirely sure where Vince’s head was.

  “He’s a tough nut to crack, Kelsey. I’m not sure what to say.”

  My phone rang, and I had never been more thankful for the distraction. I held the phone to my ear and answered. “This is Jayne.”

  “Hi sweetie, it’s Pam.”

  I smiled, sitting up and crossing my legs. “Hi! I’m sorry I haven’t called. It’s been a whirlwind around here.”

  She laughed softly. “I can only imagin
e. So things are good?”

  I sighed. “Well, good for me, I guess. How are you?”

  “I’m okay—listen; I was supposed to meet with Flynn about forty-five minutes ago. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, do you?”

  My blood went ice cold. I hadn’t known about a meeting with Pam, but if he was going to meet with her after dealing with his father’s business, he should’ve been there. He’d been gone more than four hours.

  “All he told me this morning was that he had some meetings. I can call him if you’d like me to.”

  Kelsey sat up, sensing in the tone of my voice that something was wrong.

  “I’ve tried, but it goes straight to voicemail. I thought he may have forgotten and was busy. I can wait another half hour or so if he’s on his way.”

  “Okay, Pam. I’ll try him now, and I’ll get back to you.”

  I pressed end on my phone and looked over at Kelsey. “Flynn was supposed to meet with his lawyer and never showed.”

  “Oh shit,” she whispered fiercely.

  I couldn’t reply. Oh shit was right. My throat was dry and choked up, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I was angry at him and worried to death.

  I punched in his number and growled when it went straight to voicemail. I knew for a fact his damn phone was charged—I’d plugged it in the night before.

  “Come on. I need to talk to Vince. Something’s wrong.”

  We packed up our things hurriedly and rushed across the patio as fast as we could. I was trying not to panic, but I’d had the same feeling in my chest once before, and we all knew how that turned out. Badly.

  I went straight to Flynn’s suite, hoping like hell he was there waiting for me. When I walked in to complete silence, my heart plummeted and my hope went to shit.

  “Goddamn it!” I yelled.

  I tossed my bag on the couch and turned on my heels, almost knocking Kelsey on her ass in the process, and headed toward my previous suite. I knew Vince would be able to help. He probably knew exactly where he was. They were sneaky like that.

  When I reached the suite, it too was empty, and the feeling of dread seeped down so deep I thought I’d drown.