Woman Named Red

by Stasia Black

  And then I tell myself to get fucking going.

  Because I’ve got the most beautiful woman in the world in my arms and it’s time to satisfy her. Multiple times over.

  I give her a quick slap on the ass, grin when she yelps, and carry my woman over to our bed.

  Chapter 27

  KENNEDY

  “So let me get this straight,” Vale puts down his scotch and looks me straight in the eye. “This crime boss, Yang, will likely try to use the hotel as a money laundering front now that he’s an investing partner? And you can’t do anything about it because he got you out of a jam regarding the lovely Scarlet’s safety?”

  He gestures to where Scarlet’s sitting with his wife Callie, the two of them with their heads together, all quiet gossip and smiles. They’ve quickly become close friends in our brief association with the Vales.

  I lift my glass and then down the rest of the contents. “That’s pretty much it. Yang’s got me by the short-and-hairies.” I look at Vale levelly. “But there’s no reason for you to get dragged into this. I wanted to let you know so you can pull out. I know some investors who won’t mind Yang’s involvement.” I look to the ceiling with a quick shake of my head. “Fuck, it’ll probably make it more attractive to them.”

  I look at my empty glass, then set it down. Not the best idea to get piss drunk even though Vale’s a friend. This is business. It was probably never a good idea to mix up friendship in this shit from the beginning. Especially now that the deal’s gotten fucked sideways.

  I dare to take a glance at Vale and find him staring over the top of his glass at the wall. He seems to be pondering something. Maybe whether or not to tell me to go take a flying leap. I just hope he doesn’t influence his wife against Scarlet. She had nothing to do with any of this and she seems to really like Callie—

  “Did I ever tell you,” Vale suddenly says, taking another sip of his scotch and skewering me with his gaze, “how much I fucking hate bullies?”

  I feel my eyebrows lift in surprise. All right. Not where I expected the conversation to go. “I’m listening.”

  “What if there were another option?”

  I lean forward, elbows on my knees.

  Vale smiles and it’s a calculated, devious smile. “I like the metaphor you used earlier. But what if I told you I know a bigger shark after all?”

  “Who?” I ask in bewilderment. But also with keen fucking interest.

  Vale grins and holds out his hands. “I just happen to be on very good terms with the DA and the San Francisco Police Department.”

  Epilogue

  SCARLET

  “Hurry, quiet,” I whisper with a giggle as I shove Kennedy into one of the cells in C block.

  “Now, we’ll continue down Broadway to Times Square,” drones the Alcatraz guide in a somewhat monotone voice. The shuffling feet of the tour group we just slipped away from echoes all around the otherwise empty prison.

  I clap a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles and Kennedy only shakes his head at me with a dark look and an arched eyebrow.

  I take one second to look around the tiny five-by-nine mint-green cell we’re in and then hurry over to the corner. I put my legs shoulder width apart, flip up my flowing skirt, and grab the end of the cot.

  If I thought Kennedy’s eyes were dark before? Yeah. Nothing to the way his pupils blow and his nostrils flare at the sight of my bare ass. I wiggle it at him just for good measure.

  He glances toward the open cell door and then he’s on me, unzipping his pants as he goes. He moves me so that we’re boxed in the tiny corner and my ass is facing the wall. He reaches down and grabs my ass cheeks hard, then slides his hand underneath and slips a finger inside me. I know he’s checking if I’m ready.

  Sweet of him, but completely unnecessary. I’ve been wet since we landed on the island, waiting for a moment like this when I could get him alone on one of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks. He’s playing innocent, but he must have been expecting it, too. After all, we’ve fucked at popular spots all around town. In a cab while we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. At a beach underneath the bridge. On another beach in the Presidio. On Fisherman’s Wharf. In the—

  Kennedy enters me in one smooth thrust and my mind goes blank of everything else except him.

  “Oh God,” I whisper, “So good. Fuck me hard and fast.”

  He does. Oh God, I love it when he gives it to me. Just letting loose and jackhammering so hard. I love that he doesn’t treat me like I’m some delicate little flower. No, he just lays pipe like he means it.

  I can’t help the little high-pitched whining noises that come from my throat. He clamps one of his big, strong hands over my mouth.

  I love it when he does that. It’s never been so important to keep quiet before. We haven’t done it anywhere quite so public in a while. There was that art show downtown, in the hallway, but ohhhhh, every time feels new with him.

  “Quiet,” he hisses in my ear, letting go of my mouth. He leans over my back, one hand gripping the cot beside me and the other grabbing my breast through the thin cotton of my summer dress. “You like it, don’t you, my dirty, dirty girl. But stay quiet, because who knows what would happen if someone hears these little noises you’re making. That you can’t help making because I’m fucking”—he thrusts—“you”—another deep thrust—“so”—again, he bottoms out deep inside me and I swear my eyes roll to the back of my head—“hard.”

  Then he goes back to pistoning in and out and the hand that was on my breast drops underneath my dress. Within seconds of him touching me, it hits.

  It hits and it hits and God, mother of freaking Mary Jesus God—it— I— Oooohhhhhhhhh—

  Kennedy stills inside me, his head leaned over my shoulder from behind, cheek against my cheek and I swear I can feel the ecstasy rolling from him into me and then reverberating back again.

  We stand there for several long moments. The pleasure of coming has passed, but the absolute joy of him holding me like this, his heart beating with mine, feeling so close to another human being, and not just anyone, but him. Kennedy. My Kennedy. He makes me feel…everything.

  I turn my face to his so I can look into those golden-flecked hazel eyes of his.

  “I love you,” I whisper it like it’s a discovery. It feels like it is every time I say it. God, now it feels like there was never a time I didn’t love him.

  He blinks in shock, then shakes his head like it’s not true. And I can see it on his face. It doesn’t compute for him. Those words. Addressed to him. Even after five months together. I want to kick myself for taking this long to say it again after that first time, what feels like forever ago.

  I pull forward so that we disconnect and my dress falls back to my knees. I take his face in both my hands. “Kennedy Benson, I will love you for the rest of my life. Forever. Past forever.” I laugh even as he keeps blinking. “You are the love of my life.”

  He shakes his head again and I forcibly try to stop it and move it up and down instead. “Yes. Yes, you idiot. I love you. And you love me. It’s your turn to say it.”

  “Of course I love you.” It comes out in an explosion of breath. “Are you kidding? Of course I love you.”

  “Well of course I love you, too,” I say, my voice shaky with joy. I grab his arms and drag them around my waist. Then I do up his pants so we look slightly more dignified during our declarations of love.

  “Come on,” I laugh, “we better get back to the group.” I try to remove his arms, but he’s still just shaking his head and looking at me like I’m some kind of alien species.

  “Kennedy, come on.” I can’t stop grinning at him. Okay, I’ve heard the term love-struck, but now I’m seeing it in real life.

  “You love me?” he whispers like he still can’t quite dare to believe it.

  “Yes,” I say emphatically and this time I’m the one shaking my head, but only at how ridiculous he’s being.

  But internally, I know why. God, I know. And
I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to him how loveable he is. I’ll give him babies who will love him and we’ll show him every day a hundred different ways. Together he and I have already been working on his food issues. He still has the closet, but he lets me in there with him more and more. He’s started seeing a counselor, something he told me he never even considered before me.

  “I love you,” I say again just to hear the words out loud and because I know he might need to hear it a thousand more times before it really sinks in.

  I grab his hand to pull him along. “Now come on before someone catches us.”

  I try to drag him toward the door but he takes the hand I’m holding and stops me in place. Then he drops to one knee.

  Right there in the middle of Cell Block C in Alcatraz prison.

  “Marry me.” He swallows hard and looks terrified the second the words escape his mouth.

  “You aren’t supposed to be in here,” a voice calls from the doorway.

  I look over my shoulder and see a middle-aged guard with a flashlight beamed at us. Holy crap. The flashlight is completely unnecessary because the cell is well lit, but still. We actually got caught.

  “S-sorry,” I stutter, “we’ll just—”

  “Come on, man,” Kennedy says, still on his knee. “I’m sweating it out down here. Can you give us a minute?”

  The guard looks past me to Kennedy. Then he moves his head back to me and gestures with the flashlight. “Well? What’s your answer?”

  I grin and turn back to Kennedy. “Yes!”

  Kennedy mocks wiping sweat off his forehead and then jumps up. He lifts me off my feet and swings me in a circle. The cell’s so small, though, my feet hit the bottom of the cot.

  “Watch it, watch it,” the guard says, sounding grumpy again. “Get on now. Outta here.”

  Kennedy lets me down and his grin is so wide, I swear his face is gonna crack. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a pen and the guide packet for the tour, then scribbles something on the paper. He walks over and hands it to the guard.

  “Text this number with your address and you’ll get an invite to the wedding. It’s going to be huge. Champagne fountain. Obnoxious amounts of food.” Kennedy gestures with both hands, then looks over at me. “No expense too much for my beautiful bride-to-be.”

  I laugh and join him, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the main hallway. “I don’t know about all that, but we’d love to have you.”

  The guard’s smiling at us, although he looks reluctant, like smiling’s not something he does often. He must really get into his role to give authenticity to the place.

  “Have a wonderful day!” I call and wave as Kennedy pulls me along. As soon as we round the corner, he pulls me into his arms and crushes me to him, kissing me hungrily.

  “Did you mean it? Or was it just a show for the guard?” Worry lines his forehead.

  I smooth his brows with my thumbs. “Of course, I meant it, silly man. I want nothing more than to be your wife. Because I love you, stupid.”

  He grins again and it’s freaking breathtaking.

  A horn sounds in the distance. It’s the sound the ferry makes when it comes into port.

  “I think we missed the rest of the tour,” Kennedy chuckles, sounding more light-hearted than I’ve ever heard him before.

  We hurry back to the pier just in time to catch up with the rest of our group. No one seems to have noticed we were missing.

  We get on the ferry and it sets off. As I stand by the railing, Kennedy’s arms wrapped securely around me from behind, the Bay wind whipping through my hair, I watch the mainland getting closer and closer. Moving forward. That’s what our lives are all about now. The future and what’s ahead of us. No more looking back.

  Enzo’s settling in. He tried going back to public school but felt too out of step with the other kids his age. Instead we decided to do online school and he’s taking some college level classes at one of the community colleges nearby. He’ll probably graduate early at the rate he’s burning through his coursework. After everything that happened, he seems to want to put the past behind him, too. Either that or he feels like he has to make up some debt to me. I know he still feels guilty. I’ll have to keep working on him.

  As far as Yang, that’s still on-going. They bought The Sutler and Kennedy’s overseeing the transition team to update the building. It’s almost ready for the grand reopening. So far he’s convinced Yang to keep it clean, but it’s barely been breaking even while they do the construction work, closing down sections of the hotel at a time.

  Stella about flips her lid on a daily basis trying to keep all the plates in the air that are required to keep the accounts for three businesses afloat. Kennedy finally made it official—she finished up her business degree and she’s now his CFO. So far she hasn’t found out about the dark secrets underpinning The Sutler, either about Yang’s plans for it or the fact that Kennedy’s bringing in the Feds. The fewer who know about either, the safer. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep it from her. She’s one smart bitch and I saw her eyeing Kennedy sideways when he was trying to distract her when she dropped by to talk about some accounting discrepancies last weekend. Stella’s not great with the boundaries between work life and personal life. In her defense, Kennedy never had any boundaries before me either.

  Not even I know all the details of what’s happening with the Feds—again, he says the less I know the safer I am, but from what I can glean, Yang’s already starting to run some of his operations through the hotel. And it’ll all be secretly monitored as part of whatever sting the Feds have got going on to catch him.

  One day when I was hanging out with Callie, I also heard talk of an inside man when Vale and Kennedy didn’t think I was around. I didn’t ask anymore beyond that because I don’t want Kennedy worrying about me knowing things I shouldn’t.

  At least from what I understand, Kennedy won’t have any part in what’s happening. The Feds have this ‘inside man,’ whoever that is and whenever it all hits the fan, there’s not supposed to be any blowback on Kennedy or Vale. They shouldn’t even have to testify. If all goes according to plan.

  Because that always happens.

  My gut tightens and I squeeze Kennedy’s hands out of reflex.

  Kennedy must feel it because he nudges me. I look back and see the questioning look in his eyes.

  God, I love him so much.

  No, I’m not going to focus on any of the bad stuff. We’re going to live a long and beautiful and perfect life together. He and I haven’t fought this hard for our happiness to lose it for anything.

  “You okay?” he leans down and calls out over the wind.

  I nod and relax into him. I’m not being anything but genuine when I say, “Perfect.” And then, just because I can, I add, “Love you.”

  He swallows at the words. I wonder if they’ll always affect him so much. And you know what? I hate the reason why, but I hope they always do. We should never take love for granted. It’s a gift, such a rare and precious, precious gift.

  I lift up on my tip-toes and kiss the man I love. His arms wrap around me and we kiss and kiss as the wind whips through my hair and we sail toward home.

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  Coming August 2017

  MODERN DAY GEISHA

  a standalone novel

  Continue on for a peek of Modern Day Geisha following the acknowledgements!

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  About Stasia

  Stasia Black is an author who’s drawn to romantic stories that don’t take the easy way out. She wants to see beneath people’s veneer and into their dark places, their twisted motives, and their deepest desires. She likes to toss her characters into the tempest and watch them hurt, fight, bleed, and then find out what, if anything, comes out the other side. Come along for the journey because it’s one helluva ride.

  Acknowledgements

  This book simply would not be what it is without the help of some AMAZEBALLS beta-readers.

  Aimee Bowyer, ZOMG, I feel like you saved my butt on this one by helping me see some problems with Kennedy’s voice. All the other beta readers alluded to it but you kicked me in the pants before I went to presses with him only half-formed in the first part and forced me to FACE IT. I had this niggling feeling in the back of my mind but you pointed the finger and went: look HERE, and HERE, and HERE it is NOT working! Not to mention catching all my little errors. So helpful, I cannot thank you enough my beautiful rainbow unicorn lucky rabbit’s foot of a beta reader. Also, because of you, we now have the answer to one of the great mysteries of the universe—it’s BLOWJOB [single word], not blow [space] job—now known thanks to Aimee’s plucky on the spot reporting after polling friends, family, and finally, one flamboyantly-dressed fellow on the street who gave the final say so!

  And then I had so many others lend their time and thoughts and feedback.

  Alana Sapphire, you were such a gem (yes I will geek out on any and all dumb word puns at every opportunity)—but seriously, you offered to read and give me feedback at a time when I was desperate to know if I’d just written a large steaming pile or if this book had a future at all. Thank you SO much!