by R. R. Banks
“Clearly, somebody saw it coming,” I say. “Somebody from your own – paper – nonetheless.”
“To be fair, Miss Greene,” he says. “This story only came out after we got word that your brother ˗”
“Half-brother,” I snap.
“Sorry, half-brother,” he says. “That story was written only after we got word that some of the other journalists went down to the zoo to cover it.”
“Journalists,” I spit. “You and your ilk are even less a journalist than some of these bloggers who insist they've found Bigfoot's love child.”
“That's not exactly fair, Miss Greene –”
“You told me that you have the pulse of – society – in this city,” I cut him off. “You told me there is nothing that happens among the so-called San Antonio A-list that you don't know about first.”
“And that's all true,” he argues. “This though – this came out of left field. Nobody knew he was dating this woman. Not until yesterday.”
“I pay you a lot of money, Mr. Haas,” I say, my voice bitterly cold. “I pay you that money to keep tabs on my half-brother. To let me know about the women in his life.”
“I – I know you do, Miss Greene,” he says. “But I can't tell you something that I don't know about.”
“I pay you to know these things, Mr. Haas.”
He falls silent and looks down at the top of his cluttered, filthy desk. I grimace at the collection of soda bottles and old fast food wrappers. There is an overpowering odor of grease and body odor in his office and if I stay there much longer, I might just be sick.
“What do you know – if anything – about this mystery woman?” I ask.
He sighs and sifts through some of the pile of papers on his desk, likely pretending he's looking for something so he doesn't have to meet my eyes.
“Not much yet, I'm afraid,” he says. “All I know at this point for sure is that her name is Amanda Johnston.”
“And?”
“That's it,” he says. “She's not one of the elite in the city. So far as I've been able to dig up so far, she's a nobody. Nobody of any real relevance in San Antonio, anyway.”
I laugh and shake my head. “So, my half-brother is dating a pauper,” she says. “A mysterious, unknown pauper at that.”
Mr. Haas shrugs. “So far as I can tell at this point.”
I look at him coldly, pinning him to his seat with my eyes. I want him to feel the full weight of my unhappiness and dissatisfaction with his efforts. This is my inheritance, my birthright on the line and he needs to understand how personally I take it and what I will do to him if he fails me.
“Certainly, she did not materialize out of thin air,” I say. “And I highly doubt he imported her from Russia. This woman – this Amanda Johnston – somebody in this god forsaken city knows who she is. Knows about her.”
“Yeah, probably.”
I look at him for a long moment. “Then don't you think you should be out there, on the streets, doing what you can to learn everything you can about her?” I say coldly. “Or should I perhaps, release the photos?”
A look of pure terror seizes his face and Mr. Haas looks ready to blow. He shakes his head violently.
“No, no need to do that, Miss Greene,” he says.
I believe in having leverage over people. I find that it greases the wheels and allows things to get done in a far more efficient manner. For instance, I have photographs of Mr. Haas here engaged in an illicit affair with an underage teenage boy.
Holding on to leverage like that can be a very persuasive tool in getting a person to agree to your demands. But I'm not a complete monster – I pay him a very fair wage for his services. Though, given his current failures, I'm not certain what I'm paying him for.
“Then get me what I need,” I say. “I need to know who this girl is. I need to know her vices, her dirty dark secrets. I need to know everything about her.”
I have a private investigator on retainer and he's been wonderful in providing me with leverage on any number of people – such as the unfortunate photographs of Mr. Haas. It was the happy by-product of a normal investigation, but even my PI has lines he won't cross. He has ethics and refuses to dig too deeply into the muck of somebody's personal life.
But somebody like Mr. Haas here – he doesn't concern himself with ethics. Which is why he is perfect for the role I need him to play in protecting my own future and my own legacy. Those things I'm owed.
“I need something I can use, Mr. Haas,” I say.
“I'll find it, Miss Greene,” he says. “Don't worry. I'll find it.”
“You have until the end of the week.”
I stand and quickly walk out of his office, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and a stiff drink. I slide into the back seat of the car and the driver closes the door, sealing me into the dark, comfortable interior. I instruct him to drive and then raise the glass partition between us, needing a little privacy.
I didn't see this coming. I didn't think that Brady would ever be serious enough with a woman to threaten my inheritance. He loves living the playboy lifestyle. Loves to party. Loves beautiful women. And he takes nothing seriously. Ever.
Which makes the fact that he has a mystery woman – that nobody knew a thing about – on his arm more than a touch disturbing. His affairs are always public and always very brief. Making the situation even more worrisome for me is that he had his son with them in the picture.
Brady is a lot of things, but one thing I do know – and the only thing I'll give him credit for – is that he is a devoted father. Certainly, more so than his own dirtbag of a father. And I know that Brady would not stand for shuttling strange women in and out of Nicholas' life. The fact that he rented out the zoo for the three of them to spend a day together is – troubling.
Mr. Haas' failure to see this situation coming – and even more disturbingly, to know nothing about this woman – is causing me more than a little stress. I can see the threads of all of the plans I've made, of the groundwork I've laid, dangling out there. All Brady needs to do is pull one of those threads and the entire tapestry will unravel.
And I can't let that happen.
I don't have faith that Mr. Haas is going to deliver. If this woman is as big of a mystery as he says, I fear that he might not be able to dig up anything I can use. Which means that I need to implement my contingency plan.
I didn't want to have use my nuclear option, but I don't see that I have much choice. If Brady is as serious with this Amanda Johnston as it seems, then I'm going to need to blow things up sooner, rather than later. I cannot afford to let them get married or I'm going to lose everything that's owed to me.
I take my phone out of my purse and dial my PI's number. He answers on the first ring.
“Ackles,” he says in his, thick, gruff Texas drawl.
“Mr. Ackles,” I say. “Tiffany Greene.”
“Yes ma'am,” he replies. “What can I do for ya?”
“The contingency plan we discussed,” I say. “I need to begin implementing it.”
He chuckles softly. “Saw the paper this mornin',” he says. “Thought I might be gettin' a call from you today.”
“You thought correctly then,” I reply. “Can you do it?”
“Course,” he says. “Just gimmie a little time.”
“Of course,” I say. “But please be aware that time is not our greatest ally right now.”
“Roger that,” he says. “I'm on it.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ackles.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Brady
The sunlight is streaming through the windows when I open my eyes and find Amanda looking back at me, a warm smile on her face.
“Well, good mornin' darlin',” I say. “Sorry – Amanda. Good mornin' Amanda.”
She laughs softly. “That's a habit I'm not going to be able to break you of, is it?”
I shrug. “Not sure. It's just a –”
“Texas thing, I got it,” she la
ughs.
“It most definitely is a Texas thing.”
“Just don't get carried away with it,” she says.
“Yes ma'am, I'll do my best.”
She laughs and nuzzles herself closer to me, planting a soft kiss on my chest. Yesterday had been about the most perfect day I could have ever imagined. We had a great time, she and Nicholas seemed to hit it off incredibly well. Everything about it was just – perfect. And of course, how Amanda and I ended the evening made it all the better.
I went into this thinking that we could do this. That we could have a mutually beneficial working relationship. A partnership. But as we spent more time together and I got to know her better, I found a truly remarkable woman. Unlike anybody I'd ever met before.
No, she's not like the typical woman I tend to date – but that's probably a good thing. I never realized it, but maybe I do need something different in my life. Somebody different. It scares me to even think about things like that, but those thoughts are runnin' through my head all the same.
I started this as a business proposition, but as I look into Amanda's eyes, I'm just not sure what it is anymore.
“I could stay here all day,” she murmurs.
“You and me both,” I say. “This – this feels like heaven.”
She looks up at me and I can see that something is on her mind. But then she closes it again without speaking. I plant a soft kiss on her forehead. There's no rush to define what it is between us. Hell, maybe it's best we don't for a while. Maybe we'd be better off just letting it play out and see where things go.
And that's the most unexpected thing for me – my desire to see where things go.
“But,” I say, “if we don't get up and get ourselves presentable, I fear that Miss Delia is going to send a search party up here for us.”
“Yeah, probably,” she sighs.
“How about a shower?”
“I can definitely use one.”
We stumble out of bed and make our way into the bathroom. The light comes on when we pass through the doorway and Amanda stops, gawking at the bathroom.
“Wow,” she says.
I look around and shrug. “It's a bathroom.”
“It's the most amazing bathroom I've ever seen.”
I laugh and shake my head. One of the things I love about her is that she makes me see things through her eyes. The things I take for granted, she sees as amazing. And because of her, and how she sees the world around her, it's giving me my own sense of wonder back.
“Just wait until you see the shower then,” I say.
It's a walk-in shower with a soft, cascading feature that's a lot like a waterfall. When I turn it on and get the temperature just right, Amanda squeals with delight and splashes around in it like a child. It's incredibly endearing.
“This is incredible,” she says, letting the water run over her.
I find myself admiring her body as the water rushes down over her. She's a beautiful woman and takes my breath away. She turns and looks at me, giving me a small smile.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothin',” I say and smile back at her. “Nothin' at all.”
She saunters over to me and wraps her arms around my neck, looking up at me. “You are one sexy man, Brady Keating,” she says.
“And you are one beautiful woman, Amanda Johnston.”
I lean down and kiss her deeply. Passionately. I push her up against the wall, letting the steam billow around us as the water cascades down over our bodies. Feeling her body, wet and slick, grinding against mine gets me hard in an instant. She takes hold of my cock, stroking it with a firm grip, all the while, biting her bottom lip and giving me a flirty little look.
I moan when she squeezes me tighter, and strokes me faster. I watch her as Amanda drops to her knees in front of me, tracing the tip of her tongue around the head of my cock. She flicks her tongue across the head, making me gasp, before taking it into her mouth.
With her mouth on the head of my cock, she flicks her tongue around it while still stroking me at the same time. And then she slides her mouth down, taking more of me into her. She starts moving her head up and down, working her mouth and her hand simultaneously. I throw my head back, moaning loudly as she works my cock, sucking and stroking, hard and fast.
“Jesus, darlin',” I gasp. “Thought you said you didn't know if you remembered how to do any of this.”
She looks up at me, her smile wide. “Turns out, it's like riding a bike,” she says. “I guess you don't forget some things.”
Amanda laughs and then slides her mouth down, taking all of my cock into her throat. She's cupping and squeezing my balls as she licks and sucks on my hard prick, moving her head up and down on it. My hands are in her hair, wrapping it around my fingers and pulling it as I moan and she makes my entire body shudder.
With the way she's working my shaft, I know that she's going to get me off sooner, rather than later. And I'm just not ready for it yet. I want to take a little more time and enjoy her body. I reach down and stand her up. She looks a little disappointed, but I kiss her – making her feel all of my desire and passion for her in that kiss.
My cock is so hard and the way she's stroking it is driving me crazy. I give her an apologetic smile and hold up a finger.
“Gimmie a minute, darlin'” I say. “I'll be right back.”
She laughs as I dash out of the shower and watches me rummaging through the drawers in the cabinet, looking desperately for a condom. I breathe a sigh of relief when I find one and hold it up for her to see.
“Success!” I say, beaming happily.
After putting it on, I walk back into the shower and take her hand, pulling her over to the in-shower bench. I sit down on it and then turn her around, giving me a perfect view of her incredibly perfect ass. Grabbing her by the hips, I pull her down. She grabs hold of my cock, guiding me to her tight, wet little pussy and then gasps as she slips it into her and slides down on it.
I grab Amanda's hair and pull it firmly, yanking her head back so I can kiss her neck as she begins to bounce up and down on my cock. She moves hard and fast, impaling herself on my cock over and over again, her breath becoming ragged and her body tense.
I knead her breasts with my hands, giving her nipples a firm pinch that makes her cry out. I arch my hips upward, trying to drive myself even deeper into her. And when I do, Amanda moans my name softly. Her entire body tenses up and then she leans back against me. I feel her body shuddering and trembling as she comes for me.
Kissing her neck, I let her catch her breath and ride out the waves of pleasure that are coursing through her.
“Oh my God, that was amazing,” she moans, her voice thick and husky.
I smile and stand her up. “You're pretty amazing,” I say as I kiss her.
“It's your turn,” she says.
“Damn right it is, darlin'.”
I smile and turn her around again, bending her over the bench. She plants her hands on it and looks back at me over her shoulder, a saucy smile on her face. Stepping up behind her, I grab hold of my prick and guide it to her tight opening. With one hard thrust, I drive myself deep into her pussy, drawing a long, loud moan of pleasure from her.
With one hand on her hip, I reach up and pull her hair nice and hard as I fuck her. The sensations coursing through me as I drive my cock into her again and again are unbelievable. I cry out, calling her name as I thrust myself deep into her.
Amanda pushes herself back against me, grinding herself on me as I fuck her. The sound of flesh meeting flesh as our bodies slap together echoes around the bathroom. Mixed with our moans and cries, it's one of the most erotic sounds I've ever heard and it's turning me on beyond belief.
I feel my balls tightening and the pressure building up low within me. I know I'm not going to last much longer. As my body tightens up, I can feel my movements growing more and more erratic and I feel almost frenzied as I slam myself into her again and again.
Amanda looks bac
k at me again, her cheeks flushed with color and that same naughty smile on her face.
“Let go, baby,” she moans. “Come for me. I want you to come hard for me, Brady.”
And as she clamps the muscles inside of her down around me, it pushes me over the edge. I feel my body get extremely tight a moment before it feels like everything inside of me lets go and turns to jelly. I throw my head back and call her name as my cock begins to throb and pulse as I blow my load into the condom.
As my cock pulses inside of her, Amanda cries out as another orgasm grips her. I relish the feel of her body shuddering while I'm inside of her, all of her muscles constricting and squeezing – heightening the pleasure coursing through the both of us.
A few moments later, I feel my deflated cock slip out of her and she stands up, turning around to face me. We kiss passionately and in that moment, I feel like I could stay there, with her, forever and be happy doing so. And looking into her eyes, I think I can see the same feelings being reflected back to me.
“As amazing as that was,” she says, “we should probably get cleaned up for real.”
I laugh. “Probably so,” I say. “Miss Delia's probably already looking for us.”
After throwing the condom away, I stand beneath the shower with Amanda. We take turns washing each other, and then spend a little time in a lover's embrace. It's one of the most intimate moments of my life and I don't want it to end.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tiffany
“I have to say, I was surprised to get your call.”
I look at Brady and give him a small smile. “Why is that, Brady?” I ask. “We are family, after all, are we not? Is it a crime to want to have brunch with family?”
He looks at me and I can see the wariness in his eyes. “Is that what we are, Tiffany? Family?”
“Of course, it is,” I say. “We're the only family we have left.”
“That's funny,” he says. “Because I tried maintaining a relationship with you for a long time. Because you are the only family I have left. And yet, you wanted nothing to do with me.”