There I thought, that ought to keep her off my back.
“That’s bullshit! You know where you are. Why won’t you tell me?”
“I can’t Mandy. All you need to know is that I’m safe.”
I heard her frustration on the other end.
“Damn it Brooke. I’m worried about you. Stefan is worried about you too. He’s been over here looking for you. He says he wants to work things out with you, that he loves you.”
Suddenly I felt panicked and scared. Dylan was right, Stefan would stop at nothing.
“Mandy I have to go.”
I hung up the phone before she could say anything else. Then I called my mom and told her that I was out of town and that I’d be back on Sunday and we could catch up then. Thank god she didn’t argue with me. My mother understood that I was a grown woman that could make her own decisions. I also had a feeling that my mother knew what had happened at court with my dad and shit head. I knew that wouldn’t make her happy.
On my way to the living room I ran into Tristan, literally. The man was pure muscle and damn near knocked me on my ass as I rounded the corner. Blonde military cut hair, crystal green eyes and tattooed skin stared down at me. He was beautiful like Dylan. I could only imagine the cougar fest when those two went out to the clubs together.
“Oh, sorry”, I said.
“No, Ms.Stone. It is I that owes you an apology. I should be more mindful of where I’m walking. I’m Tristan Petrovsky. I work security for Mr. Prescott.”
“No worries and please call me Brooke.”
“Nice to meet you Brooke.”
I shook his hand; then went searching for Dylan.
He had just finished lighting a fire and turning down the lights when I entered. The room instantly coming to life from the glow as it danced off the over sized windows. I joined Dylan on the bear skin rug as he poured two glasses of wine and produced a large square box. I laughed when I realized we would be eating pizza by fire light.
“How romantic”, I told him.
Dylan’s lips twisted at the ends revealing a sexy, shit eating grin.
“Oh princess, I am romantic and I fully intend on showing you how romantic I can be.”
My body heard that message loud and clear; straight down to my core. I was so needy for him, so consumed by him. I had to gain some control or we would spend the rest of the week in bed devouring each other.
I had just finished my pizza and wine when I remembered that I needed to tell Dylan about my conversation with Mandy.
“Mandy said that Stefan has been looking for me. She says he worried and wants me back.”
He set his wine glass down and stared at me.
“Did you tell her where we are?”
“No. I told her that we were out east somewhere but I didn’t know the name of the town. She seemed to be softening towards Stefan so I hung up.”
“Good girl”, he said. “Brooke, I know she’s your best friend but I don’t want you talking to her anymore until all of this gets sorted out. Okay?”
I agreed because I wasn’t sure who I could trust anymore. Dylan leaned in for a kiss, his lips were soft and tender as they moved across mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and took his tongue deeper in my mouth. When he broke the kiss we were both panting and breathless. I knew he wanted more just like me.
“Not yet Brooke, I have something that I want to show you.”
“Haven’t I seen everything here”, I asked?
“Yes princess, but there’s more. I need to show you more.”
Dylan put another log in the fire, re-igniting the flames. We were sitting face to face sipping our wine and I couldn’t help noticing the reflection in his beautiful blue eyes. He did crazy things to my heart. I never felt so much love like I did when I was with him. He pulled out a little box and handed it to me. I gasped; my hands shaking as I opened it. Inside was a beautiful platinum necklace with a diamond encrusted tiara attached. It was simple, yet beautiful.
“It’s beautiful, I love it, but why are you giving this to me?”
“Do you remember when I told you about my family?”
“Yes, I remember. Why?”
“My sister Danielle was a wonderful, beautiful girl. I loved her more than anything in the world. When we were young my parents would take us to the beach and Danielle and I would spend hours playing in the sand building sand castles. She always insisted that she was the princess that lived in the castles we built. Of course I was always the evil villain who was trying to kill the prince.”
Dylan and I both laughed.
“Over protective brother, eh?”
“Of course, someone had to protect the princess. I had the necklace made for my sister’s eighteenth birthday. My sister took her life two years later. My parents and I were devastated but my brother Luke took it the hardest. Danielle was his twin. She had been dating Mason in college and things were getting pretty serious, they were engaged. His family was very influential and had strong political ties so it was a good pairing, especially for the families. Danielle was finishing up with school, planning a wedding and found out she was pregnant. When she told Mason about her pregnancy, he wanted her to get rid of it. My sister didn’t want to. She figured since they were getting married anyway that they could make it work. Mason didn’t feel the same way. He told her that either she had an abortion or the marriage was off. The break up shattered her; she thought that if he loved her, he would love their baby too. That just wasn’t the case.”
The sadness in his eyes ripped me to shreds. It was the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever heard. To see the man that I loved hurting so much, reliving his sister’s death made my heart hurt.
“The police tried to contact my parents when it happened but they were out of the country on a business trip to Dubai. So they called me and I went down to identify her body. It was awful. She had slit her wrists and bled to death and at the time nobody knew that she was pregnant. I knew that losing their only daughter was going to kill my parents but knowing that their daughter took her unborn child’s life, would be too much. At that point, I did what I had to do. I used my family’s money and influence and called in a few favors to save my family from the pain of a suicide. Money can buy a lot of things Brooke. Including covering up a suicide and making it look like murder instead. I wanted to kill Mason for putting her in that position, but in the end it was ultimately her decision and she chose to die rather than live.”
I couldn’t even imagine the torment he must have felt. Being close to his sister and losing her. I hugged him so tight never wanting to let him go. I wanted to protect him as much as he was protecting me.
“I love the necklace Dylan but why are you giving it to me? It has so much meaning to you. Isn’t it something that you’d want to pass on to your wife or child? You know, keep it in the family?”
He pushed me on my back and lay next to me, stroking my cheek.
“Princess I am keeping it in my family. Don’t you know how I feel about you? That necklace means everything to me. You remind me of her in many ways; the way you care about others, your stubborn streak and the constant urge to always argue and be right. And yes, I do want my wife to have this and she will pass it on to our daughter one day. I love you Brooke. I always have and I always will.”
My heart was pounding, excitement and fear crushing through me. I wasn’t sure I was hearing him right.
“Dylan…are you asking me to marry you?”
He smiled as he placed the platinum chain around my neck.
“Not yet Brooke, but soon. It’s not the right time and there are things that need to be taken care first. I want you to meet my family and I want to meet your mother. But I had thought that when we do take our vows we can do it at the Prescott Mansion. How do you feel about that? It can be as big or small of a wedding as you like.”
I loved him so much in that moment. I leaned closer and took his mouth our tongues slowly making love to each other. It was just the two of
us, lying in front of the fireplace. Dylan looked so hot as he slowly undressed himself and then me. I ran my fingers down his chiseled chest and kissed and sucked each of his nipples and continued my loving torturous routine straight to his cock. He let out a slow hiss as I sucked, flicked and licked him with my tongue. I pulled away wanting to feel Dylan inside, I needed to be loved. I lowered myself on to him feeling every inch as I sank down. I felt so full being stretched as I wiggled trying to take all of him. He put his hands on my hips and slowly guided me, lifting and then pushing me back down until I slid all the way down his shaft. I rode him slowly, savoring every loving stroke he gave, then faster and harder, both of our breaths coming. I moaned as Dylan took his fingers and rubbed my clit in little circles. I could feel myself building, squeezing him tighter and tighter. He pumped in to me with a fury and I started coming calling out his name, “Dylan!” “Right there with you baby”, he said and I felt him explode inside of me.
I collapsed on his chest trying to gain the strength to move but I couldn’t. There was no other place I wanted to be. “I love you Dylan.” He feathered me with soft, loving kisses as I lie on him, holding me close, “I love you too Brooke.” We spent the rest of our days in Telluride watching the snow fall through the windows, talking and getting to know each other. When we weren’t inside eating or making love we were outside playing like two kids without a care in the world. I never wanted our time to end. I enjoyed having him all to myself, no Stefan, no Misty, no one to bother us. That wasn’t our reality though and soon we were back on the road, back to our lives, back to reality.
CHAPTER 10
The trip home seemed to take longer than the trip to Telluride. I suppose it had to do with the snow that had been falling for the past five days. When I wasn’t sleeping we would talk about the future, what our family would be like and where we going to build our family home. He mentioned that I should quit my job and go to work with his mom doing charity work. I told him I would think about it. I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel on my current job just to appease my boyfriend. Things were moving fast with us. I knew he didn’t want to lose me anymore than I wanted to lose him. Somehow deep inside I always knew he was the one for me. Although, my sexual encounters were limited to Ryan and Stefan, there was something about Dylan and the way he made me feel. He always took extra care in making sure I felt good and loved. He was the master of my heart.
As we approached the city, Dylan looked more stressed. I didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling but I could sense that something was bothering him.
“What’s wrong”, I asked?
He took a deep breath and shook his head.
“I don’t know how to tell you this Brooke. Stefan put a hit out on you.”
Covering my mouth I gasped.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know why. Maybe he thinks you’re going to leak his information about your case to the media.”
“Oh my god. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“The other night when I didn’t come home and you thought I left you for Misty, I didn’t. Detective Tyler called to give me the news about the hit. I spent the evening with him at the Governors house discussing how we’re going to stop Stefan. He’s knee deep in shit princess. He’s pissed a lot of really powerful people off, including me.”
“I don’t know what to say. I don’t understand why he would want me dead. I’ve never done anything to him. It’s as if I didn’t even know the man that I had been sharing a bed with for the past eleven years. Dylan, please tell me that my father has nothing to do with this.”
“I don’t know babe. That’s why I asked about your father. I sure as hell hope he isn’t involved, for both of your sakes.”
Turning and looking out the window, a tear escaped me. I hoped like hell too that my dad wasn’t involved. Hating me was one thing, but wanting me dead, that was inconceivable. The bad news just kept piling up.
“Brooke, remember how I told you I cleaned up my sister’s suicide?”
“Yeah.”
“I also told you that my family is very wealthy but I earn my own money.”
“Yes, where are you going with this Dylan?”
“I don’t want there to be any secrets between us Brooke. I have to tell you everything. When I covered up my sister’s suicide, I realized that there was a market to make money cleaning up unfortunate accidents for people. Princess, I’m a fixer.”
What the hell was he talking about? What the hell was a fixer and what did that have to do with Dylan. I understood why he covered up his sister’s suicide but what was this shit about unfortunate accidents”?
“Do you know what a fixer is Brooke?”
“No.”
“Princess, a fixer is someone who goes to a crime scene before anyone else gets there and fixes the scene to make it look different than what it is.”
“Oh.my.god. Dylan that’s illegal! What about your job?”
“Brooke, that is my job. That’s how I make my money. When a celebrity comes to visit or someone powerful has trouble, they call me. It pays very well. My job at Prescott Oil and Gas International is just a cover.”
“Holy shit. That’s dangerous Dylan. You have to quit. You have too much to lose. What if we have kids? You can’t be doing that; you’ll put us all in danger!”
He took my hand in his and gave it a soft kiss.
“Calm down baby. It’s okay. I would never let anyone hurt you or our family. I love you; I just wanted you to know. You’re the only one that knows besides my security team and Tristan.”
I felt blindsided. I didn’t see it coming and what the hell was I supposed to do with that information. We had just had the most magnificent week together and he drops this bomb on me. My head was spinning with confusion. Did I stay and trust him or did I run for the hills just like he thought I would? Why in the hell were men so complicated? I loved him so much; my fixer of deceit. What I needed was time to think, to process everything that was happening in my life. It was all happening so fast I didn’t have time to breathe.
We pulled up to the gates of the penthouse; Dylan entered his code. As we drove in to the garage I noticed that my car had been dropped off while we were away and now filled the spot where the Lamborghini once lived. After what seemed a long elevator ride, I entered the house, poured a glass of wine, sat on the couch and turned on the TV. The time was ten after six and the news had just started. Perfect, I thought. I can see what the weather’s going to be like for the week. Then a familiar picture came across the screen. It was a picture of my former apartment building, my exact building. I saw a man with light brown hair being taken out in handcuffs when I realized it was Stefan. I covered my mouth as I gasped as the reporter spoke.
“Local attorney, Stefan Arici has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Police aren’t releasing any details at this time but it is alleged that Mr. Arici murdered his assistant/girlfriend Amber Martinelli late last night. There is speculation that Mr. Arici murdered Miss Martinelli in the bedroom of their home. We will continue to keep you updated as this strange story unfolds.”
I turned to look behind me and saw Dylan standing there watching, taking the scene in. I got up to walk toward him when his cell phone rang. “Prescott”, he said in to the receiver. “Yes, I’m aware.” He hung up the phone, came over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss.
“That was the governor princess. I have to go.”
Before I could say anything, Dylan opened the door and left.
THE END
Thank you for reading. Dylan and Brooke’s story continues in book 2 of the Infinity Collection releasing, Fall 2013.
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Fixer of Deceit (Infinity Collection) Page 9