by Malone, Nana
”
“If I what?”
In a swift motion, he removed his belt and shoved his jeans down. She gave a soft ooh sound when her palm came into contact with his smooth tip. A small bead of liquid escaped and helped lubricate her palm as she brought him closer and closer to the brink. Roughly, he tightened his grip on her hips and bent her over as far as she could go, forcing her to release her hold on him.
His cock nestled in the cleft of her ass. He leaned over to place kisses on her exposed neck. He fumbled with the foil packet he’d rescued from his wallet and shoved aside the flimsy material of her thong. And then, without preamble, he lined up the head of his cock to her folds and slid in to the hilt, making her groan.
For moments, he stayed just like that relishing the feeling, her inner muscles tightening and massaging the length of him. Those sexy mewling sounds from deep in her throat that revealed she was close to coming began again and they were music to his ears. When he stroked the tip of her nipple, she gasped out his name again as her whole body quaked in his arms.
Taking his cue, he began to slide inch by inch of his cock out of her until he was nearly completely out. He repeated the movement, shallowly penetrated her, in and out, in and out until he made her beg for more.
“Damn it. Stop teasing me.
Chuckling, he whispered, “You want more, do you?”
At her muffled response, he penetrated her as deep as he could go, slowly building tension. Gasping for air, he filled his hands with each cheek and gripping for support, he loved the way the soft globes filled his palms.
While one hand continued to knead her taut flesh, the other caressed her back, pausing to massage the back of her neck, reaching around to her face to trace a slow line across her bottom lip. She responded by peeking out her hot tongue and drawing in his thumb. As she sucked, deeply, she also grazed the soft pad of his flesh with her teeth.
“Jaya—” he warned.
Removing his thumb from her lips, he brought his hand back to join the other on her ass. With his moist thumb, he traced the line bisecting her soft orbs until he reached his quarry. He circled the sensitive flesh until he could feel her pussy tighten around his pulsing cock.
He knew what to wait for, he continued to tease until he knew she was about to go dancing off that ledge, then stopped his ministrations.
“God, don’t stop now,” she begged.
Rocking his hips forward, he whispered, “I want you so hot, you can’t possibly wait any longer.”
He felt her tighten her inner muscles around him and smiled.
Her breath was ragged and her muscles drew him in farther. “I’m already so hot I can’t wait any longer.” Jaya rotated her hips, forcing a low moan from his lips.
“Are you sure?” he asked, all the while rocking his hips gently back and forth.
“Yes. And let me remind you, payback is a bitch.”
Alec smiled slowly and gave her what she wanted. Continuing his slow circles with his thumb, he gently penetrated the tight ring of muscle. With ragged breathing she pushed back in time to his rocking. Once again he felt the pulsing and quivering around his burning cock as she pushed herself flush against him. His climax wasn’t far behind hers. With three long strokes, he exploded, certain his body would come apart at the seams.
They stayed like that for several long moments, chests heaving. Sweat poured from his forehead and he splayed his hands across her back. Alec thought if he could just stay like that for a moment, the blood would rush back to his brain so he could begin to use it.
Gradually, clear reason and thought returned to him and he slid out of Jaya, though that movement was halted by her protesting inner muscles. He moaned. “Sweetheart, we can’t stay here like this.”
Slowly he helped her right her clothing. He pulled her skirt down and helped her straighten it. Before he turned her around, he managed to get his jeans back on. When she faced him, he saw the residual lust in her eyes. Unfortunately, he also saw a cautious wariness.
Choosing to ignore it, he dipped his head and slid his tongue over the soft, full lips. She responded to him as she always did. When he pulled back, he took in her unfocused eyes and parted lips and wished they had more time. They couldn’t stay there like that.
“We have to go.”
She straightened with a groan. “What the hell did we just do?”
He bit his tongue before something deep could spill out of his mouth. Telling her he didn’t want to leave her would just freak her out. And it wouldn’t change anything. He was still a Westhorpe. He was still going to leave. Sooner or later he’d get the itch to go and he would only hurt her.
Instead, he flashed a grin. His teeth ached with the effort as he helped her straighten her skirt. “We just crossed something else off on your Thirty List.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Are you going to stand there lurking in the corner all afternoon, or are you going to come in and tell me what's bothering you?”
Alec rolled back on his heels but no made no attempt to go into Adele’s office. How the hell was he supposed to tell her what he'd found?
He told himself he didn't fear rejection once she found out her real son wasn't perfect. Wasn’t afraid she'd blame him. Right. Stop being a pansy ass. Spit it out and get it over with. “We need to talk.”
She slid the glasses of the end of her nose, placing them on the files in front of her. She gave him a sharp, narrowed-eyed look that told him she was as shrewd as always. “Spit it out, Alec. I don't have all day.”
That was her way. No nonsense. “I reviewed those files you wanted me to look through.” Stepping out of the shadows, he picked a seat directly in front of her. It was Band-Aid ripping time. “I found some inconsistencies with the accounts.”
Her face was a mask. No tight drawing in of the eyebrows. No thinned lips. She might as well be wearing a kabuki mask.
“Over the past three years, someone has been laundering money through the hotels. A little here, a little there. Over several different accounts, primarily the club accounts.” He let that part hang. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her it was accounts Max should have been watching.
“How much?”
“Sum total, just over two million.” He waited for the anger or even tears. He'd only seen Adele cry once and even then it had been in anger, over him. It was when he'd shown up on her door step asking to be taken in. She’d railed and screamed at his father, but not because he'd been unfaithful. More because his father didn't want to take him in. She'd cried then. If she’d ever cried after, he'd never seen it.
But not now. She leaned back in her chair fingers steepled under her chin.
“I'm glad you confirmed it.”
He frowned. “You knew?”
“I had my suspicions. Really, Alec, you think there's much that goes on around here that I don’t know about?” She arranged the files on her desk. “Every hotel with a club or lounge started seeing more and more losses. I started shutting them down. Except for Synthesis. I didn’t know the extent of the damage. Doesn't help when it's lots of cash changing hands.”
He shook his head. “It's been killing me trying to figure out how to tell you.”
She clasped her hands in front of her.
“You shouldn't have worried. You’re not the thief. You didn’t take a family business and defile it with drug money.”
He shook his head. “But Max did. He’s got more problems than you know about.”
Waggling a finger at him, she said, “I know all about his problems. No matter what I’ve done, he’s never turned out how I expected. He’s spoiled and arrogant and self-indulgent.”
He couldn’t believe she was missing the bigger picture. “Mimi, it’s worse than that. The trouble waiting for him is far worse than what the board will do to him when I bring him home. The Sandoval brothers are bad news. The goon they sent will only come back. They think Max took something from them and they’ll do what it takes to retrieve it.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “You can cover those accounts all you want. But you can’t save him from himself.”
Her eyes were hard and shrewd. “You don’t think I know that? Lord knows I’ve tried with him, but he’s not interested in changing. He has your father’s temperament.” She shook her head. “I don’t know where I failed him.”
Alec ground his teeth. “You would have been better off completely cutting him off and sending his ass to military school. But that’s beside the point now. Now you have to deal with the mess he made. And it’s bigger than you having to cover some accounts or make the numbers add up. If the Sandovals don’t get what they’re looking for, they’ll kill him. Even if he gives it back, they’ll still probably kill him. His only chance is to go to the feds.”
She frowned. “I don’t think—”
He shook his head. “He’s been running drugs out of the larger clubs. So far, I can’t find evidence of anything out of Synthesis, but the clubs in La Jolla and Oceanside have been making more of a profit than they should be, while the hotel clubs that are part of Westhorpe are losing money in droves. He did more than run off. He left you holding the bag. The Sandovals have the Westhorpe in their crosshairs and they won’t just go away.”
Adele didn’t even blink, just stared at him long and hard before pushing back her chair. As she stalked to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the Gaslamp district, he worried that this would all be too much. Had he gone too far?
“What are you going to do, Mother?”
The look she gave him was quick. He rarely called her mother. It stunned her into silence for a moment. She blinked rapidly, sniffing as she stood up straighter. “I'm going to do what I always do. Deal with him. You bring him home to me, and I’ll fix it.”
He blinked at her. “How? All due respect, but I don’t think you can control him.”
The look she gave him reminded him of the time she’d caught him at age thirteen gawking at the naked sunbathers on one of the rooftop spas. She’d grilled him on the finer points of respecting women until he’d been sure to never disrespect another woman in his life.
“I am still co-founder and President of the Westhorpe Hotels. So take your due respect and shove it. You think I’m so loving I won’t send your idiotic brother to jail? You’re mistaken.” She inhaled and then let out a slow even breath as if she was counting the beats to calm herself. “He stole from me, you, the employees, and for what? To get into bed with the dregs of the earth? Jail’s too good for your brother. If I had my way, I’d send him to a Thai prison so deep and dark, he wouldn’t see daylight for some time. But I might have to settle for good-old fashioned San Quentin.”
Alec shivered. He’d never meant to get her this upset. “Adele, I didn’t mean—”
She interrupted him, dismissing his words with a wave other hand. “Yes, you did. You think I still don’t have what it takes to run this place. And yes, I’ve been a fool, but no more. Let’s take care of our immediate problems. The Sandovals.”
“We can go one of two ways. Tip the police. Though, if we do that, it’ll be in the papers. If we plan to go public in the near future, there will be no way to keep any of this stuff private. Our other option is to just shut down those clubs. Pay off the Sandovals if we can. Make it go away for now.” He shrugged. “Both options still mean we have to deal with Max. If you try and cover his ass, it will come back to bite yours.”
“What’s your recommendation?”
“Close the clubs. Leave Synthesis open to see how it performs. In regards to the Sandovals, I’m still deciding. Caleb is thinking of a way out of that one. As for the public filing, even if none of this goes to the press, you’re not ready. Your house is not in order. I say, give it another year while you clean house. You’ll need to run it by the board, of course, but it’s the safest bet. You can go public next year when your financials are clean.”
Adele leaned against the glass framing. “I still need a voice and a VP of Operations. I simply cannot be everywhere all the time. I wish I could change your mind about coming back, but I know better. I’ve learned my lesson with Max.”
He let out a small breath and asked quietly, “I’m sorry.”
Her voice, usually so foreboding was gentle. “For what? At least I have one son I can count on.”
“You’re sure you still want me to bring him back?”
She gave a toss of her head as if she could shake off the melancholy. “Yes. He has to answer for what he’s done.” The breath she let out was weary. “I’m sorry, Alec. I didn’t want to burden you with all of this. You made yourself clear when you arrived and I was listening. I promise once he’s home, I won’t tie you here and try and guilt you into staying. This isn’t where you belong.”
“Adele,” he started.
She laughed. “Back to that, are we? I’m not trying to guilt you. It's the truth. I learned long ago that for you to be happy, you had to do your own thing. I respect it. “
Chapter Eighteen
With jangling nerves, Jaya started at her quarry. There he was. Brett James, sitting at Tamara’s rehearsal dinner, like part of the family. All Jaya had to do was talk to him and she could have her life back. Could prove that she wasn’t a failure. Be welcomed back into the fold.
Except her feet where having a hard time making the trek and it wasn’t the fault of those gorgeous four-inchers. She was terrified.
“What’s wrong, Jaya?” Alec’s breath on her ear gave her a start. She looked up at him and he gave her one of his usual winning smiles. “Isn’t that your boy over there?”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah, that’s him.”
He gave her a gentle nudge. “Then what are you waiting for? You’ve done all this work to get here.” His blue eyes trained on hers. She could read the confusion and worry in them.
She couldn’t bear to see him caring about her, so she looked away. It’s not like she could tell him that while Brett James might be the guy she was looking for, she was a chicken shit. Everything she’d ever wanted was finally within her grasp, and she was loitering on the periphery. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Alec’s earlier words rang through her head over and over again. He’d asked her when she would start looking at her reality. But he'd been right. This life she was so desperate to get back was mostly a fantasy. A fantasy she thought she could live in.
This was reality. She had one job lined up with Adele Westhorpe, but she had no others, and no one clamoring to hire her. She actually couldn’t get a job in this town, thanks to dear old dad and Derrick. So what choice did she have? She had to pull on her big girl panties. Chugging the rest of her champagne, she strode towards her mark with Alec in tow.
Brett James was in classic Geek Chic. Never mind that it was a rehearsal dinner for a wedding and the attire was cocktail—he wore a Miss Packman T-shirt, with the only concessions to the evening festivities being his dark-wash jeans and his blazer. But from the patches on the tweed jacket, she could tell it was meant to be ironic. On his feet, no loafers for Mr. Tech. Instead, Vans.
Yep, he was one of her people. If she'd gone with her father's pitch, Brett James wouldn't be standing here like he was part of the family. And she’d done that. She’d made it happen. So time to get her job back.
Alec kissed her shoulder. She shivered in delight as she thought of what they’d done before coming to the rehearsal. “Good luck. I’m going to go keep your asshole ex busy so he doesn’t interrupt.”
She squeezed his hand as he left and drew in a breath. Now or never. She took a step in the right direction, but as her father stepped in her path, she was forced to take two steps back.
“I trust you're enjoying yourself, Jaya.”
She rubbed at her nose with a knuckle. “Yeah, fine, Dad.” She attempted to peer around his tall frame. “If you'll just excuse me, I need to head to the ladies—”
“Where is that date of yours? Tamara mentioned you were bringing him.”
She stiffened. Sin
ce when did her father give a shit about her date? “I'm not sure. If you’ll just—”
But her father didn't seem to be hearing anything she said. Instead he looked lost in his own train of thought. “If you'll want to continue seeing him, we'll need to have him vetted appropriately, of course. You still have your shares in Trudeaux to protect. Wouldn’t want you making the wrong choices. We have to find out what we can about Alec —”
“Aren’t you the one who fired me?” She cut him off as her anger brimmed. “Why do you get a say in who I date?” The last thing she needed was a lecture tonight. Especially not a public one. Too bad those were Pierre’s specialties. She knew how to perform a preemptive strike.
Her father rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’ve really been in a snit for much too long.”
She sniffed and pulled herself up. “I’m not is a snit. This isn’t a toy I want you to go and get from Tamara for me. Though, it’s not like you’d actually ever take anything from her.”
He shifted to turn his back on her. “If you really must—”
She grabbed his arm and turned him around, not particularly caring if anyone was watching them. She kept her voice low. “You started this line of conversation. Not me.” She moved in even closer to him, aware that many of the guests had turned to stare at them now.
“I’m not in a snit. It’s not a snit when you expect your father to stand up for and defend you. It’s not a snit that I choose not to spend any time with you and or Tamara and Derrick. I find him to be a vile human being who lied to me, cheated on me, plotted to have me fired, and is now about to marry my sister. Instead of standing up for me and being my dad, you take sides then act like I’m being unreasonable. You fired me from a family business. How the hell am I supposed to feel?”