by Lilly Atlas
“Or any woman.”
“There’s no other woman, Kori. None who meant a damn thing. Ever. You are the first and only that I’ve been genuinely interested in. Okay?”
Perhaps those words should have been a red flag in and of themselves. Who made it to their mid-thirties without having romantic feelings for someone from the opposite sex, even if it was one sided? Instead of being concerned, her traitorous heart fluttered at his words. Who wouldn’t want to be the only woman Lucky cared for?
“You do realize this is crazy, right? And will probably blow up in our faces?” she asked.
His answer was the same lopsided grin he’d given her last night. The real smile. No agenda, no deception. And it reeled her in. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
The smile grew bigger, but his eyes still told the tale of someone struggling with a demon. Maybe there was something she could do to help ease his burdens, if only for a while.
With a wink, she shifted off his lap and settled on the floor between his legs. One of his eyebrows rose as she reached for his fly. “Got something in mind for me?”
Playing with him was so much fun. Somehow, she was comfortable enough around him already to ignore her inhibitions, be silly, and tease him. “I do.”
He obliged her by lifting his ass as she worked his jeans and boxers over his hips. “What’s your plan? Oh fuck,” he said as she wrapped her hand around his length and pumped twice.
“Hmm, I’m pretty sure you can guess what comes next.”
“I can.” His voice was a rough croak. “I just want to hear you say it.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’m thinking I’ll suck your cock until you come down my throat. Then you can take me to your place and return the favor. I’m pretty sure Rebel is out for the night, but it’s never a guarantee.”
“Less talk about my president, more cock in your mouth.” Lucky winked.
She chuckled. “Such a romantic,” she said as she lowered her mouth to him. Starting at the base of his shaft, she licked a long line up the underside. The hiss that greeted her was like music to her ears. There was something to be said for taking a strong, alpha man like Lucky and controlling him with one swipe of the tongue.
When she got to the head, she swirled her tongue around it and his dick jerked. “Eager little sucker, isn’t he?”
“Little?”
She laughed. When had sex ever been this fun? “My apologies. Eager monster, isn’t he?”
“Damn straight,” Lucky said.
Enough banter. Kori opened her mouth wide and sank down on him, taking him as deep as she could. He was right, there was nothing little about his cock, and it would take her a few minutes to get used to him and take him further. Not that he seemed to mind.
“Jesus, fuck,” he yelled, one hand flying up to fist in her hair.
It was a new and a bit unnerving experience. Kori had always been the one in complete control when going down on a guy. Now, with his hand holding her head, she was very aware that he was giving her the control and could snatch it back at any time.
Rather than pissed, it made her hot. She became bolder as she worked him with her mouth, sucking with alternating pressure and adding her tongue to the mix. As she grew more comfortable and relaxed, he was able to slide deeper. When he finally hit the back of her throat she swallowed and his reaction was off the charts.
A harsh shout left him and he held her head harder, taking some of that control for himself. She forced herself to stay relaxed as he thrust his hips and plunged in and out of her mouth. It was a combined effort, he didn’t completely take over and fuck her mouth, but much of the pace was now his to regulate.
She grew wetter by the second and wasn’t sure she’d make it to his house before she needed some relief.
“Fuck, baby, that mouth is amazing. I’m about ten seconds away. You want to pull off, or you gonna swallow me down?”
Kori gripped his hips, hard, and swirled her tongue one more time around the tip before sucking him back into the depths of his mouth. She swallowed around him once again and he lost it. Salty warmth filled her throat as he came with grunts and moans.
She held him in place until he settled, then let his softening cock slide out of her mouth. His eyes were dazed, satisfied, but the hunger was still there. It was going to be a good night. “Kori, that was unbelievable. Come up here.” He patted his chest. “I’ll return the favor as soon as I’m not dead.”
“Take me to your apartment first. I want us to be able to lose control without worrying about being caught like I’m a teenager.”
“Sure, baby. Ten minutes.”
She settled against his chest and listened to the slowing beat of his heart. Now that the room was quiet, her mind reeled with questions.
Was had she gotten herself into?
Was she crazy?
Was this a giant mistake?
Time would tell. She’d go with it for now, and pray her heart wouldn’t end up shattered in the process.
Chapter Fifteen
Rebel cast his gaze around the empty clubhouse—his kingdom as he privately called it—and smirked. Life as a king was pretty fuckin’ sweet. It wasn’t that he could do no wrong, but it was pretty damned close.
These men, these brothers of his, possessed a strong sense of loyalty that bordered on blindness. For nearly a year he and Savage had been peddling drugs and not a single member of his club was in the know. Not one. Not an inkling that something was wrong. They followed him like sheep, baa-ing and doing his bidding.
Exactly what he needed when the time came to bring more of them into his little side business which was rapidly growing into a large scale side business.
He glanced at his watch. Where the fuck was Savage? His second in command was supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago and the man was punctual to a fault.
Well, he had five minutes until Rebel—
The door swung open and Savage entered, wrestling another man through the door. The guy was bone-thin with the glazed eyes of the fully baked and he looked like he’d gone a few rounds with Savage and hadn’t faired too well.
“What the fuck is this, Savage?” Rebel pulled a package of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one up. He suffered from a constant low level of agitation tamed only by the flow of nicotine in his bloodstream. As he inhaled and let the drug work its magic, he kept his gaze on the man who Savage shoved into a chair.
Despite his black eye, bloodied lip and lolling head, the man appeared to be feeling no pain. Rebel knew a good customer when he saw one. Question was, what did Savage have against the junkie.
“Not what, Pres, but who. This here is Robbie. Robbie has one purpose in life—fill his veins with heroin as often as possible. Ain’t that right, Robbie?” Savage asked. There was no response so he smacked the scrawny man on the back of his head. “I asked you a question, junkie.”
Still no answer, so Savage shrugged.
“Savage, we’ve got shit to do. We don’t have time for games. Get to the point.” He stared at the smoke curling from his half-smoked cigarette. In some ways, he could sympathize with the man’s addiction.
“This ain’t no fuckin’ game, Pres. We’ve got a problem.”
Rebel raised an eyebrow. “And that would be?” He loved Savage like a son but the man could be a fuckin’ drama queen at times. “Get to the point.”
“Robbie’s been running his mouth on the streets. Talking about the No Prisoners selling his favorite shit.”
Rebel resisted the urge to roll his eyes and sucked in more smoke. “What, did you expect all these users to keep their traps shut? Of course they’re talking, Savage. That’s how we get more business. What the fuck’s your problem?”
Savage’s expression turned cold. He did deadly intent better than anyone Rebel had met. “Robbie is a good friend of Lucky.”
The cigarette hung limply between his fingers as Savage’s words penetrated Rebel’s consciousness. Friend of Lucky. Friend of Lucky…
; His eyes met Savage’s icy stare and his VP nodded, confirming his worst fears. Lucky knew. Lucky was the one club member Rebel had been certain would not under any circumstances get on board with selling drugs. His junkie whore of a little sister hadn’t known when to quit and sent herself straight into the afterlife when she was still a teenager. Lucky was a rabid anti-drug crusader.
A searing pain hit his fingers. “Shit!” he yelled, dropping the offending cigarette stub and shaking out his burned finger. How long had he stood there staring at Savage?
“Shit!” he screamed louder this time. “He knows?” Rebel rushed forward and grabbed Robbie by the front of his filthy shirt. His head lolled and Rebel gave him a severe shake. “You’re sure he fucking knows?”
Robbie smiled and laughed, the sound giddy, almost euphoric. “He knows. We talk about it all the time. You gonna give me some more?” He swung his gaze to Savage. “He said if I talked to you he’d give me some free samples.”
“Fuck.” Rebel released him and he landed in the chair with a thud. With a roar of frustration, Rebel paced the room and dug another cigarette out of his pocket. This time the sweet hit of nicotine did nothing to calm the beast rising within him.
“Get him the fuck out of here, Savage. I need to think, process.” In a rush of fury, he kicked over a barstool sending shards of wood flying through the air. “Any idea how long? Has he told anyone else?”
Savage shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s too fucking high to remember much. I’ll interrogate him properly after he comes down. I have a feeling with the proper motivation and just ten minutes without a hit he’ll be spilling his guts.”
Rebel nodded. “Good, that’s good.” He ran a hand across his scalp.
“This may not be as bad as you think, Pres,” Savage said. He walked behind the bar and grabbed a bottle off the shelf. After filling two glasses he handed one off to Rebel. It would take a lot more than one drink to deal with this news.
“How so? You think there’s a chance in hell Lucky won’t go after us for this?” He savored the welcome burn of booze hitting his system.
“There’s Kori.”
Rebel stopped dead in his tracks.
Kori.
Savage was right. There was Kori. Gears started turning in his head, clunking into place and activating a plan. It hadn’t been long, but Lucky appeared uncharacteristically drawn to Kori. Hell, he’d been with her for a few weeks now which in and of itself was unexpected Lucky behavior. In Rebel’s experience, men who’d been around as much as Lucky tended to never date much. They went from bed hopping to wedded bliss. Or at least the illusion of marital ecstasy.
A quick shudder ran through him. Let the others attempt monogamy. Not for him, and he’d never thought for Lucky, but apparently, all it took was one good pussy to bring a man down.
The fact that the pussy in question belonged to his daughter was icing on the cake. “I can use this. We can use this,” Rebel said.
Savage nodded. The evil grin he did so well curved his mouth.
“You want her, don’t you?” Rebel studied his VP’s face.
“I do.”
“Hmm. Then I think you should have her.” He tossed the smoldering butt to the floor and ground it under his booted heel.
“What do you have in mind?” Savage asked, his eyes shining with excitement and if Rebel wasn’t mistaken, he was hiding a hard-on behind his jeans.
“Not sure yet. Give me a day to work it out. I’ll come up with a plan to get us both what we want. You’ll have Kori, and Lucky won’t be a problem any longer.”
“Sure thing, boss. What do you want me to do with him?” Savage nodded in the direction of Robbie who’d fallen fast asleep with his face on the table.
“Keep him in the shed. Find out what he knows. Use whatever means necessary, but keep him alive for now.” He could be useful over the next few days.
“Will do,” Savage said. “Come on, sleeping beauty. Up you go.” With his heavy boot, Savage kicked Robbie’s leg.
He came awake with a start and a grunt of pain.
“Get the fuck up.” Savage yanked him to a stand and practically dragged him out the door.
Alone, Rebel withdrew his pack of smokes and lit another, ideas swirling in his brain. How exactly could he use Kori’s relationship with Lucky to turn the tables in his favor? A tiny voice in the back recesses of his mind, a voice he tended to ignore, asked if he was really planning to throw his daughter to the wolves.
For once, he let the voice be heard and contemplated the question. Was he capable of taking his new relationship with Kori and destroying it with one swipe?
A lot of money was at stake. Money Rebel had always dreamed of but never quite managed to acquire. He’d missed the first twenty-seven years of Kori’s life and neither of them seemed to suffer for it. What the hell did it matter if he never formed a relationship with her at this point? She was a fuckin’ adult.
And maybe she’d surprise him and end up being more like her old man than he anticipated. Maybe she’d see the earning potential and drop Lucky like a bad habit.
Rebel smiled.
Who was he kidding, really? It was a lot of fuckin’ money.
“Answer’s easy,” he said out loud with a chuckle. “Fuck yeah, I’m willing to use my daughter to get my way.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Tell me a little about your experience as a medical receptionist, Kori.” Donna, the red-haired woman who was conducting the interview couldn’t have been much older than Kori and ran the office in a busy multi-physician oncology practice. After going through the experience with her mother, Kori had a desire to work, even peripherally, with cancer patients. If she could so much as brighten a few moments of their day with a smile, it would be so fulfilling.
She blew out a breath. Easy question. Actually, all the questions had been routine thus far. So why was she still so damn tense?
“Sure, Donna. For the past six years, I’ve been the medical receptionist for a family medicine practice back in Florida. Where I lived was a small town, but we were the only family practice in town, so it was quite busy. My main responsibilities included scheduling appointments, insurance billing and coding, and basically every office task imaginable.” She smiled. The docs had been a great group to work with, and she missed them. It was unfortunate it ended as it had.
“For a while, we were a bit old fashioned. Paper charts, written scheduling and such. But within the last two years, prompted by me, we switched everything to electronic. So, while I may not know exactly what systems you use, I’m quite comfortable with electronic medical records, scheduling software as well as billing software.”
With a nod, Donna scribbled notes on a pad. “May I ask why you were let go?”
Sadness swamped her at the memories. “About six months ago my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She’d ignored the symptoms for so long that by the time they discovered it, she was terminal and spiraled downhill quite fast. I was the only one around to take care of her, and the amount of time I had to miss from work really left them in a jam. They had no choice but to replace me.”
A frown marred Donna’s pretty face. “Well, first off I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. And second, that kind of thing would never have happened here. This practice is very sensitive to family issues, and we’d have hired a temp while you were out, but your job would have been safe.”
Even though she held no ill feelings toward her former employer, it was nice to know she would have job security should another emergency arise.
Donna smiled. “Well, Kori, I have to tell you, you sound like exactly what we’ve been searching for. And I only had to interview fourteen applicants to discover you.” Her laugh was a bit strained.
Kori laughed as well. “Yikes. Sounds a bit stressful.”
With a roll of her eyes, Donna placed the pen and paper she’d been writing with on the desk between them. “You have no idea. We keep getting these nineteen-year-olds who’ve
never stepped foot in an office. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but we are just far too busy for me to be training a novice. Experience is a must.” She shook her head. “Enough of my soap box. Let me tell you a bit more about the job and we can see if you’re still interested.”
She was interested, very interested. The office was clean, modern, and everyone she’d met so far was welcoming and friendly. “Great, I’d love to hear more.”
“Okay, so we’re a seven-physician practice, all specializing in oncology, but some of the physicians subspecialize. The office is busy, crazy busy, and the docs are persnickety about things running in a smooth and timely manner. Many of their patients are quite ill, uncomfortable, sad, stressed, in pain…you get the picture. Anyway, they don’t want to add to the rough time they are going thorough with scheduling mishaps, billing errors, and a poorly managed office. I run the office and we have a receptionist who works evenings from four to eight, when the office closes, but need someone for the eight to four shift. Your duties would pretty much be the same as you’re used to, but we do have a billing specialist, so you wouldn’t have to do too much in that arena. Just help when she gets swamped, which happens, or fill in if she’s away.”
The job sounded perfect. Billing was her least favorite part, so it would be no hardship to leave that task behind. Plus, she appreciated a well-organized office. Back home they’d often teased her, saying she ran the office like a military commander.
“Well, you’re not running for the door, so that’s a good sign.”
“Really, Donna, I think it sounds like a perfect fit for me.”
“Oh thank God, me too.” The words rushed out of Donna’s mouth. “I have to take all of this to our staff meeting this evening, but—and I probably shouldn’t tell you this yet, but I don’t want someone else to snap you up—we will be making you an offer. I’ll email you the paperwork tomorrow. Sound okay?”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Great. Let me introduce you to Cindy. She is our billing specialist. Then I’ll give you a quick tour of the place.” She rose from the table and indicated the door. “After you.”