by A. C. Arthur
“My grandmother cooks the best steak and onions and gravy. She makes the fluffiest mashed potatoes and always serves green beans with the entrée. Can’t have dinner without your vegetables, she always says.” It was a memory that Hailey wasn’t sure why she’d thought to share with him at this moment.
“That sounds delicious,” Jerald replied.
“Yeah, and it’s making me hungry. So you’re on for dinner, Mr. Carrington,” she said with a slow smile as she picked up the lamp and set it upright on the nightstand.
“Oh wait,” she told him. “I don’t think I have a ride.”
She’d originally thought nothing had been taken from her purse. But the keys to the SUV were gone. With all that had happened earlier, she’d forgotten to hang the keys on the hook in the kitchen. Now, they were gone. The fear she’d wanted desperately to dismiss just a few minutes before about who could have come into her room while she was in the shower was renewed. Maybe one of the girls were looking for something. But why would the window be open and the door locked? Hailey was no detective. Hell, she’d never had to backtrack and try to remember faces and events, to come up with possible scenarios or to harbor the fear that was living and breathing inside of her now. No, none of this had ever been an issue for her when she was back east. Only now that she’d come to this place, to do a job she thought would save her and her grandmother’s life, did things start to take a turn for the worst. She wondered if that was some sort of sign, fate somehow trying to warn her.
“Hailey?” Jerald called her name.
She had no idea how many times he’d done that or how long she’d been in her own thoughts, but she finally answered, “I’m here.”
“I said I can pick you up.”
“No!” she replied vehemently. “No, you can’t drive up to the house. I’ll meet you at the gate.”
“Is everything alright, there?” he asked. “Mendoza didn’t do anything to you when you came home earlier did he?”
Hailey was shaking her head when she realized Jerald couldn’t see her. “No. Nothing happened. I’ve been in my room all afternoon.” Which wasn’t a lie. The part she neglected to mention was that she was certain someone else had been in this room also.
But at his mention of Mendoza, Malaya’s words about him hurting people that made him angry had echoed in her mind once more.
“In an hour,” she told Jerald. “I’ll be at the front gate in an hour.”
And she was. After calling to check on her grandmother, Hailey had dressed and moved as quietly as she could out of her bedroom. It was a little after seven and she’d been surprised that she’d slept so long. The girls would have had dinner already and would maybe be in the family room watching television. She had no idea where Ronnel was. There were no appointments on her calendar for meetings tonight but that didn’t mean anything. That party last Friday had been a surprise and so had whoever he was talking to in the living room earlier today. With a shrug she told herself it was none of her business. Nothing that Jerald had said about Ronnel possibly being into human trafficking and being investigated by the FBI had anything to do with her and her reasons for being here. And if Ronnel wanted to continue to pay her to teach his daughters who already knew how to speak English, then she certainly would. What she would not do is give this man or anyone else control over her personal life.
She was going to dinner with Jerald, even if that meant she had to sneak out of this house to do so.
Hailey made it out of the house without incident, as if nobody gave a damn what she was doing or why. With a shrug she closed the front door behind her thinking there was no reason for any of them to care. She was just an employee after all. Her heels clicked on the cobblestones as she carefully moved through the courtyard and down the driveway. There were no vehicles parked out front. One of Ronnel’s guards would have moved them into the garage as Ronnel did not like them blocking the view of the courtyard. The house had been quiet when she left which led her to believe the men he’d been meeting with earlier were also gone for the night.
Hailey had just walked through the fence door. It was located on the side of the huge gates that opened whenever a car was buzzed inside. The doorway was locked from the outside, but not the inside. Hailey did not have a key and wondered briefly how she would get back in. She would cross that bridge when she came to it, she thought, just as she began walking down the final slope leading to the open road. She stayed to the side so as to avoid any incoming cars and was immediately blinded by too bright headlights of a vehicle coming towards her.
Or at least she’d thought it was coming towards her. Instead it sped past with a screech of tires that reminded her of this morning and Hailey jumped back, a scream dying in her throat. The next car came up slowly, its lights a dull yellow as it came to a stop in front of her.
“You alright?” Jerald asked hopping quickly out of the car.
His hands were on her immediately and in seconds Hailey warmed. What was it about this guy, about his voice, his touch that always made her feel so good?
“I’m fine,” she told him. “Just hungry.”
Her smile was genuine as she looked up at him. She was hungry since breakfast had been her last meal today and with all the strange things that had happened to her today, she was happy to see him. The one person that had made her feel…no, she wasn’t going to go that far. She liked being with Jerald, or rather liked having sex with him. Tonight would be their first time actually being together.
“Then I should definitely hurry up and feed you,” he said, walking her around to the passenger side of his car.
“Yes,” she said as he opened the door and then stood close to her. “You should definitely do that.”
For a few quiet seconds they stood just as they had in the hospital, Jerald looking down to her, and she looking up at him. Both of them wondering what the hell was going on between them. Neither of them willing to take the chance of answering.
#
Jerald used his napkin to wipe his mouth after he’d chewed his last bite of steak. He reached for his glass and took a sip of his wine as Hailey spoke.
“I promised my grandfather that I would take care of my grandmother and that I would finish school,” she said with a shrug as if it didn’t mean as much to her as he suspected it really did.
“I’ll be the first in the family to have a college degree, and from Brown, no less. They’ll be so proud,” she continued, letting her hands fall into her lap.
They’d been talking lightly throughout dinner, him telling her about his brothers and his parents, about their business and his sisters-in-law. Jerald had never talked to a woman about his family before. He’d never wanted to. But when Hailey asked, he hadn’t been able to deny her.
“You should be proud,” he told her. “It takes a lot of dedication to finish school, especially under your circumstances.”
She nodded, brushing a curly tuft of hair behind her ear. “My circumstances being that I don’t have enough money for tuition.” She gave a little chuckle. “You’d be surprised how many people do not have the money to go to school, Jerald.”
“No,” he told her honestly. “I wouldn’t be. I know that college is expensive and I know that it costs too much for the average teenager to even consider going. That’s why we offer tuition reimbursement for all our employees and their immediate family. Carrington Enterprises also funds a scholarship at UCLA and Columbia where my grandfather and my father attended.”
She was shocked, he could tell by the way her eyes widened a bit.
“You didn’t think we could do anything for anyone else because we have money,” he said and couldn’t help frowning at her.
“No,” she told him. “I’ll be perfectly honest when I tell you that I didn’t think that much about your family or your business. I couldn’t afford to.”
“You have to understand that for the last five years all I’ve been focused on is making enough money to help my grandmother with her bills an
d to pay for school, one semester at a time. I can’t think about how the younger girls on campus are staring at me because I’m not full-time and instead of hanging with them in study hall or going to parties, I’m always hurrying off campus to get to my apartment that only holds a mattress, a table and a chair because that’s all I need while I’m in school.”
Hailey continued, “So no, I didn’t think about the Carringtons or their money or their efforts to give back to the community. I guess that makes me selfish or single-minded.”
Jerald could only stare at her. “It makes you motivated,” he told her honestly.
“How did you end up in Turks and Caicos if you barely had money to go to school?” he asked a question that had been nagging him since Jackson had left his apartment earlier today.
His brother had planted the seed that Mendoza could have been using Hailey to get at him all along. Jerald didn’t agree. But he did have questions.
“I have Rhia and Malaya to thank for that,” she replied after taking another sip of her wine. “They’d begged their father for a vacation and when he asked where they wanted to go Rhia said Turks and Caicos. He gives them whatever they want and believe me they know it. So I went on the vacation with them. Me and their nanny.”
“And you were just sitting on the beach in the middle of the night?” he asked, recalling the moment.
“I’d never been to a place like that before. It was gorgeous. I wanted a minute alone to enjoy it, without the chatter of two very privileged and just a tad obnoxious girls that spoke perfect English. I waited until they all went to sleep before I came out to the beach. I walked into that warm Caribbean water and thought better of swimming out there at night alone. So I ended up sitting on the beach. Then you came along.”
She licked her lips after saying that, as if she’d been recalling what happened after he’d found her on the beach as well. The sight of her sitting there, her legs partially spread had drawn him instantly to her. Full breasts and long legs, they’d always been his preference. But it was when she’d looked up at him, her hazel eyes staring back at him with such honesty and simplicity that had taken his breath away. Seconds later he’d thought she had to be very experienced to pull that off. Now, he knew it wasn’t experience at all. Hailey was the most genuine female he’d ever met.
“You thought I worked for someplace called The Corporation. What’s that? An escort service of some kind? Did you get your money back after I told you I didn’t work there? Because I know you called to verify my story,” she said pointedly.
Jerald had no intention of lying to her. He signaled the waiter for another drink for both of them and emptied his glass before replying.
“I did check,” he replied. “The Corporation is a sex club. It’s a place that provides any and every thing a person could crave sexually.”
He’d expected her to flinch, but she did not. Instead, she’d arched an eyebrow and asked, “You frequent this place often?”
“I only deal with professional women,” was his quick response. It might have been too quick, he thought when her other brow raised and she actually looked, disappointed.
“So you expected me to go up to your room with you because you’d already paid for it. Not because I wanted to, or because you actually wanted me. It was a business deal.”
“It was,” he replied honestly. “In the beginning. Then it changed.”
“When?” she asked, tilting her head as if she thought he was going to lie.
He wasn’t because that wasn’t his style. He did not lie to women because he did not want them to lie to him. If what Hailey thought about him as a man had begun to matter to Jerald more than what anyone else had ever thought of him before, then he would deal with that. But he would not lie to her.
“After I returned home I knew there had been something different about you. I didn’t expect to see you again so I tried to brush that feeling off as the scenery or the summer heat. Then you showed up at that meeting and I knew. You were different and I liked that. I liked it a lot.”
Their new drinks arrived and Hailey picked up her glass first. She took a long, slow sip, her gaze locked with his.
“What else do you like, Jerald? When you book these professional women, what else do you like them to do? I’m sure I didn’t do everything you would have paid for.”
She’d set her glass down and was now rubbing the tip of her finger up and down the stem. Jerald’s dick had come quickly to attention as he imagined her running those fingers up and down his length, the way she did after she’d slipped a condom on him.
“Why do you want to know?” he asked.
“I’m curious,” was her slow reply.
Jerald waited a beat. No, he waited two while he contemplating his next words. She was different, he’d admitted that already. She did not work for The Corporation, had no idea a place like that had even existed. And yet…she was curious.
“Drink your wine,” he told her. “And come with me.”
CHAPTER 8
Jerald helped her out of the car, lacing his fingers with hers. For a second he looked down at their clasped hands, his skin touching hers. It wasn’t sexual even though during the ride he’d definitely been thinking about slipping that simple, yet overwhelmingly sexy, black dress off her body. He would go slowly this time, he told himself again. Slow enough to savor every second, to taste every inch, touch every crevice. It wasn’t like he needed the memory since the camera was already set up in his bedroom. At one time, he’d wondered why he’d purchased two sets of camera equipment—one for his room at The Corporation and the other for his home—when he’d never planned to have a woman in his personal space. Now, he smiled to himself knowing it was there and in place for when he returned tonight with Hailey. He just wanted to show her something first.
“Why do you do that?” Hailey asked him.
Jerald looked up, dragging his gaze away from their joined hands to stare into her pretty face.
“Give me orders,” she replied. “’Come up to my room.’ ‘Come with me.’ ‘Quit your job.’ Is it because of our age difference? Do you have some type of daddy complex?”
She’d been smiling as she talked, but Jerald knew she was serious. He hadn’t given a lot of thought to the fact that there were ten years between them. When he spoke to her, he simply said what came to his mind. The same things he said to the other women he dealt with. Only what he hadn’t realized, or what he’d wanted to continuously tell himself didn’t matter, was that Hailey was not like those other women. The mere fact that she’d asked him that question in the first place had cemented that in his mind.
“It’s a habit,” he told her. “I have a lot of them. My family would attribute them to the OCD diagnosis I’ve had since I was ten years old. I just call them my habits.” He shrugged then, wondering why he’d said so much. A simple “I don’t know” or “does it bother you?” would have either ended this line of conversation or taken it in another direction, away from him. It’s what he would have normally done with a woman, to take the focus from him and put it on the sex they were about to have.
He looked down at his hand entwined with Hailey’s once more and then asked, “Does it bother you?”
“It did,” she began. “At first.”
His head jerked up and their gazes met once more. “And now?”
“It’s growing on me,” she replied, smiling at him again. “I think you’re growing on me, Jerald.”
“That’s interesting,” he said rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand. “Very interesting.”
They’d walked a few steps, crossing the level of the garage where he was licensed to park. He’d just swiped his membership card to access the elevator when her next question surfaced. Jerald figured this was just the beginning of their question and answer session for tonight. Once she was inside, Hailey would certainly have more and he would be happy to answer them.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked. “This place looks really officia
l. I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with Ronnel and his business. That’s not something I want to get involved in, Jerald. Especially if you and your brother are right about what you’ve said.”
The elevator door opened and they stepped inside. It did not look like an ordinary elevator, Jerald knew. The way Hailey was looking around as Jerald pressed the button for the floor they wanted, said she was thinking the same thing.
“We’re not going to talk about Mendoza again. I think you’re beginning to realize that my warnings are well founded,” he told her.
“I’m beginning to realize something,” she mumbled rubbing her hand over the brass arm railing along the wall of the compartment.
Behind the railing was rich cherry wood paneling, buffed and glossed to perfection and the floor was covered in a plush forest green carpet, giving the compartment a warm and stately appearance.
“That I was right and you were wrong?” he asked.
It was her turn to look up at him sharply, as if his words had sparked something inside of her.
“No. That people aren’t always what they seem,” she told him.
They stared at each other for the next few seconds, him wondering whether or not she was including him in those “people” and her, probably wondering what would happen next. When the elevator door opened and he took her hand in his once more, he wanted to tell her that she had no idea. None at all.
“In answer to your question,” Jerald said instead, as he led her off the elevator. “This is The Corporation.”
There were Corporation facilities all over the world. So far, in the time that he’d known about this place, he’d had the chance to visit only four—New York, Miami, and Turks and Caicos—including his home locale in Beverly Hills. Each facility had a different themed décor. All of which were stately and very exquisitely done. Jerald knew the layout of the Beverly Hills location very well. It had an old law firm feel with its heavy dark oak furniture, rich mahogany painted walls and plush forest green carpet. From one room to the next, some separated by heavy marble columns, others by dark brown shutter doors, there was an air of money and privilege thickly layered over the foundation of sexual pleasure and fantasies.