Skepticism (Life. Destiny. Fate. #4)

by LK Collins

  “Of course,” he says.

  Getting up, I jog inside, holding my hand over my stomach along the way for effect. Once I’m in, I make my move. Guys are grossed out by women when they shit, so unless this guy has a “two girls, one cup” fetish, I should be good. My heart is pounding, and as I pass the bathroom, I look around nervously for any staff. The coast is clear and I slink into his bedroom. Pulling the thumb drive out of my pocket, I plug it in, letting it do the work of breaking through the firewall.

  As I wait for it to get through, my ears are on edge listening to everything around me. Observing his room, it is way over the top, far too elegant for a man by my standards. There is a huge four-poster bed, plush dark bedding, and more strange artwork in here.

  With my stomach in my throat, I tap nervously on the cherry wood desk, forcing myself to stop the second that I realize I’m making noise. The screen finally pops up and I pray that I can do this.

  However, I freeze the second that I hear voices in the hallway. Thankfully, I am tucked away out of direct line of sight from the door. I should have closed the bathroom door though, in case it’s Prestwell. I start to panic, worried it’s him. Listening carefully, the voices are strange, so I quietly click open the drive and begin the cloning process. The noise begins to fade down the hall and I let out the breath that I was holding in.

  Come on. Come on. Come on. Micah is so fucking smart to be able to make something that can pretty much crack open a computer and then make a replica of it within minutes. I watch everything that is on Prestwell’s laptop get transferred to my thumb drive. I hope this will give us what we need.

  Then I catch sight of a housekeeper in his closet. What the fuck? I freeze, not entirely sure what to do. She is putting laundry away, and I slowly turn the screen brightness all the way down, making it black. Her back is to me and I scoot into the corner of the room behind the desk and kneel next to a huge vase, hoping it hides me. Was she there the whole time?

  Oh my God, what if she saw me? Peeking up, I stare at the light on the thumb drive, waiting for it to give me the green light to eject it, but it’s still red. I wait impatiently, willing it to hurry, hiding and hoping I won’t get caught.

  My palms are sweaty and I regret trying to do this on day one. Today should have been just about observation, getting the layout, forming a plan. But I’ve made my choice and now I have to live with it. Suddenly, I get a solid green light on the drive and look inside the closet. I don’t have a choice – I’ve been in his room for far too long and have to get back out to him.

  Risking it all, I turn the screen brightness back up, remove the drive, and lock the computer, then dash out of his room. Rounding the corner, I look behind me, but the housekeeper is nowhere is sight.

  Thank God. Sliding into the bathroom, I lock the door and safely place the drive into my pocket.

  Resting my hands on the edge of the granite countertop, I stare at my flushed complexion. I did it, somehow…someway. I look horrible, but this actually works in my favor and gives me the perfect excuse to leave.

  “Aubrey?” Prestwell knocks on the door. Oh my God, what if I was really sick? How embarrassing.

  “I’m okay, one second,” I call out, and splash some water on my face, then barely blot it dry. Taking a deep breath, I open the door and squint my eyebrows as if I’m in pain.

  His face turns white looking at me, and I say, “That bad, huh?”

  “No, I just feel terrible that’s all. I’ll have to talk to my chef.”

  “Thank you for saying that, but it’s not your fault. I went out for sushi last night with some friends. I’m sure it’s just that food hitting me. This has been lovely, really, but I’m going to have to ask for a rain check.”

  He nods profusely, “Yeah, of course.”

  I lean in to hug him, then back away. “I better not,” I cover my mouth as if to keep the germs away. “In case it’s not food poisoning. I’d hate to get you sick too.”

  “Let me walk you out.”

  He gets me loaded safely into my car while I act as sick as ever. Prestwell tries not to be rude, but he is keeping his distance and doesn’t ask if I am okay to drive. I can just picture him having his whole house sanitized after I leave. Driving off, I dial Micah the second I am through the gate. He picks up on the first ring.

  “Baby?” he answers, with worry in his voice. I know my next words will erase his fears.

  “I got it!”

  “Mr. Brown, I have a Mrs. Walsh for you in reception. I told her you have an appointment in—”

  I cut her off. “I’ll come get her.” My heart is pounding with the thought that Nat is in my office. Getting up from my desk, I button my jacket as I walk to my girl.

  If the look that’s across my face right now doesn’t make me look in love, then you might be blind. So I morph it away, keeping my stone cold courtroom look as I emerge into the waiting area. “Mrs. Walsh,” I announce, sensing that Autumn is watching me.

  Natalene stands looking drop dead fucking gorgeous in her tight black jeans and thin white top. “Mr. Brown, how are you?” she asks and shakes my hand.

  “Very well,” I respond, holding her hand a little too long.

  “Thank you for seeing me today,” she says as we walk to my office.

  “Of course. How is your husband?” I ask, hoping Autumn and the rest of the group hear as we cross through the floor.

  “He’s great, he told me to tell you that—” I shut my office door after ushering her inside and she stops talking. “So this is where you work?” she asks.

  I nod my head and open my hand to her. She places the thumb drive in it, a triumphant gleam in her eye. Walking behind my desk, I insert it into my computer so it can begin the transfer and check the clock. I only have ten minutes ’til my next meeting. She looks around the room observing everything. My cock twitches watching her so curious in here.

  Not wasting another second, I let the computer do the work and press my thick dick against her. She molds her body to me, leaning her head back when I grind myself into her. Holding on to her, I work her cunt profusely through our clothes.

  Kissing a trail across her neck, I move over to her ear, where I whisper after glancing at the clock, “I have about nine minutes ’til my next meeting. I’m going to fuck you in that time and make you come real good, but I need you to be quiet. Can you do that?”

  She nods her head and I unbutton her jeans, sliding them down her legs. Taking one of her high heels off, I remove that pant leg, but leave her other shoe on and the pants bunched at that ankle. Sucking on my fingers, I wet them and then spread them over her pussy lips. She moans a little, and I place a finger over her lips, pushing her back onto my desk.

  Delicately she lies across the smooth cherry surface. Rubbing her clit back and forth, I work her with one hand and unzip my pants freeing my cock with the other.

  “Eight minutes,” I say breathlessly and slam into her. She arches off of my desk and moans a little. I glare at her and she places her forearm over her mouth muffling the sound. Holding on to her hip, I watch my dick moving in and out of her. My body shudders in pleasure. I’ve dreamt of fucking her here so many times. Playing out this fantasy now makes everything really intense.

  Glancing down at my pants, she’s so wet that it’s starting to get on them. Unbuttoning them, I let them fall to the ground. Needing to see more of her, I push Nat’s shirt and bra up, grabbing a handful of one of her tits.

  Six minutes…dammit.

  Pumping my cock, I can feel sweat bead on my forehead as my ass cheeks tighten. I swear her body was made for mine. It’s so amazingly beautiful.

  Placing my hand between her breasts, I lean forward, pushing us both to the edge. My entire body stiffens. Putting my head down, I hold my breath making sure that I stay quiet as I let go. My dick becomes rock hard the moment before I blow, and Nat writhes beneath me. I milk myself into her, giving her all of my cum.

  When I pick my head up, she’s starin
g at me with her bottom lip tucked tightly into her teeth. I shake my head. We’re so bad. I can’t believe I just pinned her to my desk and fucked her right before my meeting.

  But did we really have a choice but to celebrate our success? I don’t think so.

  I pump myself slowly, loving having her on my desk. “Four minutes,” I whisper, pulling out of her. I hand her a few tissues and wrestle with my dick, getting it back into my pants. Tucking my shirt back in, I bend over and open part of what she downloaded.

  “What does it show?” she asks, pulling her pants up.

  “Nothing useful, yet.” She stands next to me slipping on her shoe and I hold her body close to mine. “There’s a lot on here though,” I tell her, clicking through the files.

  “Do you think it has what we need?” she asks me impatiently.

  “I don’t know, I hope so.” Leaning down I kiss her, knowing that she’ll have to leave at any minute. “This meeting shouldn’t take long, then I’ll call you as soon as I go through the files and let you know what I find.”

  “Okay,” she says.

  I kiss her again and a light knock on the door separates us. Vincent opens it and looks surprised. “Sorry, Liam,” he says.

  “It’s all right.”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Telish are in the conference room.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be right there.”

  He smiles at Nat, then looks back at me. Vincent leaves and she looks at me with the widest eyes. “You left the door unlocked.”

  “I swear I locked it,” I tell her with my hands in front of me.

  “Jesus, Micah.” She swats at me and I can’t help but laugh, grabbing her arms as she hits me again. “Someone could have caught us.”

  “And it’d be worth it.”

  “You are so cocky sometimes. What are you going to tell him about me anyways? His look says he’s gonna ask.”

  “Nah, he won’t,” I reassure her.

  “And if he does?”

  “You’re just a client.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, and I swat her ass. “Don’t do that, I don’t like it.” She laughs and I continue, “Now get home and relax. Hopefully I’ll find what I need on this drive in just a bit and we will keep things moving forward.”

  She walks off and blows me a kiss. Watching her leave makes me the happiest man on earth. Even if at the end of the day I have to leave this place and the life that I’ve built as Liam Brown, I’ll happily do it with Natalene by my side.

  When you have a string of bad luck, it finally has to let up…right?

  Wrong.

  For Micah and I, that has been the exact opposite. The information that I copied off of Prestwell’s computer was all bullshit. There was nothing useful on it. Unless you count an obsessive online shopping problem for vintage crap, authentic paintings, and sex toys as something that can help us. Other than that, there is basically nothing. I even thought about using the credit cards that are attached for his shopping as a way to hack funds, but the truth is, that wouldn’t do shit to help with the twelve million that we owe Moretti.

  “Here,” Micah says, passing me my phone. I take it from him and it just adds to my stress. To make matters worse, Prestwell has been texting me nonstop since yesterday.

  Looking at the screen, there are three new messages. I rest my head back as Micah sits at the end of the couch placing my feet in his hands. He begins to rub them and asks, “Did you think about my offer?”

  “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. There is no guarantee that you can get the twelve million anyway.”

  “And you can?” he asks pressing hard into the instep of my foot.

  “Yeah, I think so. This guy is smitten with me.”

  He rolls his eyes at me. “And he buys a lot of sex toys. I don’t like it. That’s why I don’t want to mess with him anymore. I will not have you probed by this pervert. Just let it go, baby.”

  Prestwell texts me again, and I show the screen to Micah. “But he could be our ticket to the future.”

  “Fine, text him back, but just one more meeting, that’s it,” he mumbles and gets off of the couch. I text Prestwell, hoping that I can handle things soon. I’m just waking up, I think whatever it was passed. Must’ve been a 24-hour thing.

  “Do you want more coffee, baby?” Micah asks.

  “Sure,” I tell him, sinking a little farther into the couch.

  When can I see you? I want to make up for our ruined lunch yesterday.

  I begin to text him back and he texts me again, We could go out, I’d hate it if something you ate here made you sick.

  Going out to lunch somewhere would just be a waste of time; I need to be at his house. Plus, Micah said I only had one more chance to get this handled.

  Let’s hang at your place again, I had a nice time.

  Micah hands me my coffee and asks, “What’s he saying?”

  “He wants to see me.”

  “So are you going over there?”

  “I think so; you okay with that?”

  Leaning back in the chair, he props his feet on the coffee table and says, “Do I have a choice?”

  “You always have a choice. If you really don’t want me to do this, then I won’t.”

  Micah looks out the windows, squinting his eyes as he focuses, then surprises me. “You’re going to need a little longer with the desktop, but you could probably just plug it in when you get there, say you need to use the restroom after being stuck in traffic. Then install the thumb drive and leave it for a bit. I can call you after a while to give you an excuse to step away again and check on it. I don’t think anyone is going to notice it sticking out of the bottom of his PC.”

  “What if the maid does, or something crazy like that?”

  “You didn’t do it, you said so yourself that his house is full of staff. I’m sure he has to worry about them turning on him all the time.”

  Tucking my feet more tightly underneath me, I think about Micah’s plan. I think I’m making this into more than what it really is. All I need to do is plug in and walk away and then pick it up.

  My phone vibrates again, They say no news is good news.

  I look at the other messages that he left while Micah and I were scheming away. He sounds…desperate.

  Should I head your way now? I text to him.

  Mm hmm. I can almost hear the cockiness to his tone and can only imagine what he’s thinking.

  “All right, we’re all set.” Micah nods, getting up, and comes to sit next to me.

  “Be safe today, baby, and thank you for risking so much to do this.” Scooting closer, I place my hands over his shoulders and hold on to the back of his head.

  “You don’t need to thank me, silly.” He holds me firmly, and in this moment, everything is so right. Even with the weight of this debt looming over us, I don’t have a fear in the world with Micah by my side. “Thank you for always loving me and for finding me.”

  He takes my hand and places it over his heart. “My heart stopped when we were apart. It didn’t beat like it does now. For almost a decade there was a pathetic thudding inside of my chest, but not anymore, and I am so grateful to you for giving me that. I love you, Natalene, so fucking much.”

  Tears fill my eyes from his words. I am truly the luckiest woman in the world. The only thing that could make this any better would be having Michelle with us, and I pray that one day, very soon, we will. But to do that, we need to handle things with Prestwell first.

  I’m not sure if the location-tracking app on Nat’s phone was such a good idea after all because I can’t seem to stop checking where she is.

  It’s been three hours since I last heard from her and I’m starting to get nervous. She was supposed to install the chip when she arrived at Prestwell’s, then let me know when it was done. I’m worried that something went wrong. So much time has passed and her radio silence is only making things worse.

  “Liam?” Autumn calls through my phone.

  “Yeah?”

/>   “I have Tony on line three for you.”

  “Put him through to voicemail,” I bark into the receiver.

  The line goes silent and I check Nat’s location again. She’s still at his house. I don’t want her phone to be blowing up from me, but I’m about to text her. Getting up from my desk, I gaze out the windows. A knock on my door startles me.

  I turn to see Vincent looking in. “Hey, man, do you have a second?” he asks.

  “Sure,” I respond trying to calm myself.

  He closes the door behind him and sits in one of the chairs opposite my desk as I return to my chair, I ask, “Is everything okay?” seeing worry written all over his face.

  “I don’t know, you tell me.”

  “Of course it is,” I laugh in response. I’m not sure why he’s asking, but I don’t like where he’s going.

  “You sure? You just missed the Beckit meeting, and when Autumn tried to call you to let you know Mr. Beckit was here, you cut her off before she could speak.”

  “I was on the phone with Reid,” I lie. I actually haven’t been able to get a hold of him and the dispensaries are starting to get antsy.

  “All right, well, you gotta let me know when things like that come up. Mr. Beckit came to us with a big contract and expected to meet the three of us. He might not give us his business considering you missed the meeting.”

  “Sorry,” I respond, hating to be scolded, but knowing that I have to tuck my tail and act like I care about missing the meeting, even though I don’t give a shit right now.

  “It’s all right, we’ll figure it out. What did Reid say?”

  “Not much, we talked about costs and manpower. He’s finalizing schematics and talking to his team, then he’ll call me back.”

  “Okay, let me know when you hear from him,” Vincent says.

  “Yup,” I snap, automatically checking my phone, but there isn’t anything from Natalene.

  He looks at me and bounces his knee up and down. Vincent is one of the smartest people that I know, and his scrutiny is the last thing I need. “Is there anything else?” I ask, hoping that he’ll leave.