Sighing, she rolled her eyes and leaned back. “Fine. But I’m a good person. I’ll still give you the information.”
A few second passed. “I’m waiting.”
“Really? You can’t even sit next to me?”
Knowing damn well that it was a bad idea, I crossed the room and sat on the other end of the couch. I’d get the information and haul her ass out of my house. If there was one thing Iris was very good at, it was discovering people’s dark secrets. If she had information, it would probably be good.
I heard the front door open and turned my head. “Hang on,” I muttered as I moved to push myself up.
Before I could even blink, Iris straddled me and pushed me into the couch.
“Iris? What the fuck,” I muttered as I grabbed her hips.
She slid her damp pussy over my and moaned just as I saw the figure walk through the door.
“Oh my God.” Sloan stared at me, her eyes full of pain. Papers fell from her fingers and fluttered to the ground. “I am such an idiot.”
“Goddammit, Sloan, wait,” I shouted as I threw Iris off me and stood. Iris yelled in indignation as she hit the floor, but I didn’t care. I ran for Sloan, but she was already down the hall and out the door.
“Sloan!” Bursting out of the house, I watched helplessly as she made a beeline for her car.
“Don’t,” she shouted as she turned. “Just don’t come near me. I don’t do this. I’m not this woman that just sleeps with a man, but I gave you everything that you wanted. I asked you for one thing, Lucas. Just one, and you couldn’t do it.”
“Sloan,” I growled as I started towards her, but she was already slipping in her car and starting it. By the time I reached her, she was pealing down the driveway.
As she drove away, I saw that she never even looked back.
Two minutes. It couldn’t have been any longer than that. Two minutes from the time that she’d walked into the house and driven like a bat out of hell out of my life.
Chapter 10
Lucas
“It’s okay, baby,” Iris whispered. She ran her hands over my shoulders, and I quickly shrugged her off. I couldn’t even turn around to look at her.
“You have thirty seconds to get the fuck off my property. If you come anywhere near me or Sloan, you will not like the consequences.”
“Lucas! What the hell has gotten into you? She’s nobody!”
“And yet I would still choose her over you. Any time. Every time.”
“If you deny me now, I will never tell you what I know. This isn’t some pissed off employee that you’re facing, Lucas. This person is out for blood, and they aren’t going to stop until they have it.”
I felt numb. When her words finally penetrated me, I turned and stared at her. A smiled spread over her face when she thought that maybe I would give her what she wanted. “I would rather lose everything than give you anything that you want. Get. Out. Now.”
I’d never seen Iris look uncertain, but her mouth opened slightly and her eyes widened. For a second, I thought she was going to argue, but she turned and ran from the house. I didn’t even bother to watch her get into her car. My only concern was Sloan.
Bolting for the house, I quickly snagged my phone and called her. It went straight to voicemail. “Sloan, I need to explain. Call me.”
To be on the safe side, I texted her as well.
It’s not what you think. Call me. Text me. Now.
No one denied me. Until now. I waited all night, but she didn’t call me back.
First there was anger. She should have damn well trusted me. She should have at least stuck around so I could explain.
I started on the bottle of scotch. Someone sent those pictures. Iris? She wouldn’t have dared. Iris was calculating and cruel, but she wasn’t an idiot. She would never have done something that could have easily been traced back to her.
The mole. Iris was right. They weren’t just trying to destroy my reputation. They were out to ruin me.
I didn’t know why I came back here. Club 9 was packed with bodies. I didn’t even bother to make my way to the second floor where I could have had more privacy. I lifted the glass of whiskey to my lips and downed it.
It was my fifth one of the night. My eyes moved over the people undulating on the floor, grinding their bodies on each other. They were so starved for attention. Many of them would go home with a stranger in hopes the lackluster sex would give them a little relief from the loneliness.
I hadn’t seen Sloan in a week. I desperately wanted to explain what she had seen. I wanted to explain that the photos in her hands were before I even met her. I wanted to make it right. Even if she didn’t come back to me, I needed her to at least not hate me.
Randi just coldly informed me that Sloan was working on her thesis some place private. I tried to get Torrence to search for her, but he’d told me to let it go.
I nearly fired him over it.
The week had felt like months in hell.
And now it was over. It was probably for the best. I could focus on work.
I could fuck whomever I wanted.
As I signaled to the bartender that I wanted another drink, a tight body in a slinky red dress squeezed herself next to me. “Hi,” she said in a sultry voice.
Deliberately, I cocked my head as my eyes roamed down her body. Nice perky tits. A full round ass. Cock-sucking cherry-red lipstick. Lustful eyes that told me everything I wanted to know.
She’d let me take her home and do whatever I wanted.
“Hi,” I muttered.
“Buy a girl a drink?”
“Do you really need a drink?”
Her eyes widened in surprise before she laughed. “No one has ever asked me that before. You look like the kind of man I could spend a little time with completely sober.”
“I’m not a happy man right now,” I said softly.
“I don’t need you to be happy. I just need you to be hard.”
It wasn’t enough to make me stir, but it was enough to grab my attention. The next glass of whiskey appeared in front of me, and I knocked it back while she watched. I didn’t say anything as I sat it on the counter.
“So what do you say? Take a girl some place more private?”
What did I say to that?
The best way to get over one woman was with another. I had done nothing wrong to Sloan. There was no reason I couldn’t enjoy the sexy and willing woman in front of me.
Signaling to the bartender, I pointed to my empty glass and held up two fingers.
“Does that mean you’re going to buy me a drink after all?” she said as she put a hand on my chest.
“Nothing wrong with buying a gorgeous woman a drink,” I muttered.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
When He Loves
Chapter 1
Sloan
Randi put the finishing touches on my made up face and made sure the jet black wig of long, straight hair was securely fastened to my head as I slipped into the tall heels she let me borrow. She didn’t have to push me too hard to make me go out with her. I needed a distraction, a huge distraction to help me put Lucas out of my mind.
Thank God for my thesis work or I’d never have had the self-control to stay away from him. I don’t know why I ever let myself believe in the man. He was a playboy, plain and simple. No matter how it had felt, it was as fake as he was.
At least now I knew that for certain.
I’d let Randi glob on the makeup and put the wig on me as well as one of her tight dresses to make myself look completely different. Not that I was trying to hide, but I was trying to be someone else for the night.
My plan was to let my inhibitions go, for that night, anyway. My sexual sessions with Lucas had loosened me up. I felt sexier than ever as I now had knowledge that I wasn’t a drag in bed and Lucas taught me a lot too. So I was looking for a piece of strange man to make me feel better.
I didn’t care about much, I just wanted a man to make me fe
el like I wasn’t the biggest damn idiot in the world. I wanted to know if I really was attractive to the opposite sex or did Lucas pick me because he knew I was neither sexy nor smart enough to find out he was fucking someone else on his lunch hour.
And that total rich bitch at that!
The only thing I feel bad about is not slapping the shit out of them both. Now that would’ve felt great and maybe then I’d have some closure. But I felt like there were some strings left untied. Some things I’d like to have known but knew I never would because I couldn’t ever talk to that man again. I deleted his phone number and blocked his phone numbers so he couldn’t call me. I thought of it all and went away this last week to stay with another friend of mine because I knew he’d come to my apartment to try to get his, dumb ass, piece of ass, back.
But I’d grown smarter and would not be slipping back into that man’s bed, no matter how nice it felt. I actually thought we were getting close!
We’d sit on the couch watching television and doing lame shit that couples do. We’d play footsie under the sheets each morning then have awesome morning sex and I could swear he looked at me with my bedhead and sleep filled eyes with something more than lust and desire. I could swear I saw caring and even a touch of love in his dark eyes.
I shook my head to clear it, I needed to stop thinking about that asshole!
“Time to go!” Randi shouted as she clapped her hands, enthusiastically. “I can’t believe I talked you into this!”
“I have to get out.” I got up and grabbed my purse and put the long strap over my shoulder and around my neck to make sure it stayed securely with me. I planned on shaking my booty that night, come hell or high water, I was going to have fun if it killed me!
As we walked out to the parking lot, Randi took my hand and started dragging me to her car. “You’re coming with me.”
“No!” I shouted as I pulled out of her grasp. “Randi, I’m taking my car tonight. I have to be able to escape if I start to have a meltdown. Or I may need it to take my ass to some guy’s place and I’ll need to have a ride home.”
“I get you,” she winked at me. “Okay, take your car and I’ll take mine. But stay close so we can walk into the club together. If I go in alone, I’ll get scooped up and we won’t even get to have one drink together before the mating rituals kick in.”
We high-fived and walked away to our separate cars. I was a little worried about what she’d say about me taking my own car and I was happy she didn’t try to change my mind.
I followed her to the Club 9, the place where it all started, and we parked next to each other. As we walked in, side by side, I could’ve sworn I heard a familiar man’s voice and the giggle of some woman. But when I turned to look back, I saw no one.
I had hoped it was not the beginning of a paranoid night. If I kept hearing men who were close to Lucas, I wasn’t going to have a very good time.
Randi took us straight to the bar with the good looking bartender who eyed me for a moment then he laughed and pointed at me with a big grin on his pretty handsome face. “You! The redhead, right?”
I was flattered that he remembered me. That had been weeks ago and yet he even recognized me under all the makeup and the wig. “Wow! How did you remember me?”
He leaned in close as he set two tequila shots on the bar in front of him. “Your eyes, sweetheart. And these are on the house. You and your friend are on me tonight. Just remember to come back to my bar for all of them, I’d like to see a hell of a lot more of you. I’m Clark, by the way. And you are?”
Wow, already, a hit! “My names, Sloan.” I stuck my hand out to shake his and he took it with a laugh and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Clark.”
He looked to one side and gave the other guy working with him a nod. “Cover for me, will you, Steve? I’d like to take this fine young thing out on the dance floor for her first dance of the night.”
I was shocked. I hadn’t even been there but two minutes and already I had a very hot prospect. Before I knew it, I was gathered up by the man and taken out to the dance floor where he held me tight while we gravitated our bodies to the hard beat.
Thanks to Lucas, I had learned how to really shake my hips and move my body in ways that seemed to entice the man. Clark was pretty built himself, his eyes were a light green and he had a happy go lucky demeanor. Nothing like Lucas.
I found myself comparing them as his cock pressed up against me as we seemingly dry humped each other on the dance floor. Everyone else was dancing like that, so why not?
But something was missing. I felt no heat. No urgency to fuck him. He was handsome and had a dimple in one of his cheeks. He dressed nice, smelled great, I mean there was not one thing wrong with him except for the fact he was not Lucas.
So I decided I’d just have to drink until I forgot about Lucas and could only see Clark in my future. My future for that night, anyway. We danced for a little while longer then I saw him look around me at the line at the bar and he let out a deep sigh. “Sadly, I have to end this. I have work to do. Come sit at the bar and I’ll fill you full of alcohol and dance with you again as soon as I clear up that line.”
I gave him a nod and he took my hand and led me back to the bar. But just before he let my hand go to go back behind the bar, He pulled me in very fast and kissed me hard.
Our tongues roamed around the others and I could hear some cheering from the people waiting to get something to drink. Then he pulled back and held our clasped hands up. “She’s with me, tonight, boys! So hands off!”
Then he took me to a barstool close to where he’d be working and I felt happy. So damn happy that I really was attractive enough for that man to remember me and be so possessive of me from the get go. Then my happiness turned into aggravation.
What was I doing? Was I really about to let myself become another man’s possession? Why in the world did every man I met suddenly want me for themselves? And was that a really such a bad thing?”
I was about to be twenty-five. The age when a lot of women get into serious relationships. Those kind of relationships that move into marriage and family. I was of the age to become someone’s everything. And the guy behind the bar was giving me all the right signals that he’d very much like that.
He placed a very nice looking drink in front of me before he took a single order and leaned over and gave me a quick kiss before he got busy taking care of the other people. Some woman leaned in to say, “He must really love you. How long have you two been together?”
“We aren’t,” I told her.
She fanned herself and said, “Well, get ready for some action tonight. That man has a definite hard on for just you.”
I looked back to find Clark pouring and shaking drinks and the moment I looked back, he caught me looking and gave me a smile. “Having fun?”
I nodded and sipped my drink that tasted like a strawberry vanilla milkshake. It was yummy and creamy and nothing like a drink Lucas would’ve ordered for me. Then I turned to look out at the people dancing on the dancefloor and thought I saw, Lucas.
Why can’t I get him out of my mind?
Chapter 2
Lucas
I hadn’t seen Sloan in a week. I desperately wanted to explain what she had seen. I wanted to explain that the photos in her hands were before I even met her. I wanted to make it right. Even if she didn’t come back to me, I needed her to at least not hate me.
Randi just coldly informed me that Sloan was working on her thesis some place private. I tried to get Torrence to search for her, but he’d told me to let it go.
I nearly fired him over it.
The week had felt like months in hell.
And now it was over. It was probably for the best. I could focus on work.
I could fuck whomever I wanted.
As I signaled to the bartender that I wanted another drink, a tight body in a slinky red dress squeezed herself next to me. “Hi,” she said in a sultry voice.
Deliberately, I cocked my h
ead as my eyes roamed down her body. Nice perky tits. A full round ass. Cock-sucking cherry-red lipstick. Lustful eyes that told me everything I wanted to know.
She’d let me take her home and do whatever I wanted.
“Hi,” I muttered.
“Buy a girl a drink?”
“Do you really need a drink?”
Her eyes widened in surprise before she laughed. “No one has ever asked me that before. You look like the kind of man I could spend a little time with completely sober.”
“I’m not a happy man right now,” I said softly.
“I don’t need you to be happy. I just need you to be hard.”
It wasn’t enough to make me stir, but it was enough to grab my attention. The next glass of whiskey appeared in front of me, and I knocked it back while she watched. I didn’t say anything as I sat it on the counter.
“So what do you say? Take a girl some place more private?”
What did I say to that?
The best way to get over one woman was with another. I had done nothing wrong to Sloan. There was no reason I couldn’t enjoy the sexy and willing woman in front of me.
Signaling to the bartender, I pointed to my empty glass and held up two fingers.
“Does that mean you’re going to buy me a drink after all?” she said as she put a hand on my chest.
“Nothing wrong with buying a gorgeous woman a drink,” I muttered.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Only, something inside me told it was wrong. Something in my head told me to get up and walk away from the vixen. But then the drinks came and I took mine and took a drink and looked her over again. I could’ve used a good roll in the sheets. God knows I missed sex. But the sex I missed was with Sloan and that wasn’t going to happen again.
I wasn’t even sure if she showed back up and told me she was sorry for not trusting me and not giving me a chance to explain things to her, it would be enough for me to take her back. To tell her we could go back to our agreement and continue as if she never went off the deep end.
“My name is, Veronica,” the woman said. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a clip and she let it out of the clip, making it fall around her narrow shoulders. “And you are Lucas Montgomery.”
No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 77