by Lia Lee
Morgan glanced at Brent before she nodded at me again. “I understand,” she said. “Take your time digesting this. You know you can contact me if you want to take this further. I know Zoe is very eager to meet you.”
Morgan collected her things and stood up. “I have to go. I have another appointment. It was great meeting you, Rena. Brent.” She left the shop, and I was left behind in the wake of chaos her news had created. I sipped my coffee.
“Are you all right?” Brent asked. He looked concerned.
“I have no idea.”
I didn’t know how I felt about everything that had happened. I didn’t know how to process the information. How had Zoe dealt with the knowledge that she had siblings?
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I could say no if I wanted to. He wasn’t pushing me to tell him anything, and I appreciated that a lot. But I had to get it off my chest, and Brent was someone I knew well enough to be comfortable with. Especially after what we had been doing lately.
I told him what Morgan had said about Zoe and that there had been a third sister. “We were separated for the adoption to make placement more likely.”
“That makes sense, but it seems terrible to split the three of you up.”
I had to agree. What had happened that my birth mother hadn’t been able to take care of us? It was a question I had never needed answered before. I’d been happy with my mom and the home I’d grown up in.
“Do you want to meet her?”
“I do,” I said. “I don’t want to go through life knowing I have a sister and not have any contact with her. But I’m not ready yet. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.”
Brent took my hand. His hand was large and warm when his fingers wrapped around mine. The gesture was so caring and simple, it made me want to cry. He was being there for me. This wasn’t work, and this wasn’t our new sexual relationship. I was uncharted territory, something he was under no obligation to do. But I appreciated having him here with me. I needed someone to lean on right now, and he was being a saint.
I had always thought he was hot, but this was different. This was kindness and compassion. I was getting to know a side of Brent I hadn’t seen before, and I knew I was in trouble. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him.
“There’s time,” Brent said. “You didn’t know about her for twenty-three years. Taking the time to think about it won’t change things. You will still have a sister, rather you’ll be more ready for it later.”
I nodded. “You’re right,” I said. He was being logical about it, open-minded when I couldn’t be. I took his advice because it was the best thing I had to go by right now.
Chapter 14
Brent
The meeting with the PI had gotten to Rena. I could tell by the way she was quiet and serious. We split up to go to our separate rooms and pack. Once I was done, I went back to her room and knocked on the door. She opened, and I followed her inside. Her clothes were on the bed, and she hadn’t packed anything at all.
“Talk to me,” I said, sitting down in the love seat in the corner. I was good at approaching something logically. I had found out through experience that voicing something made it easier to work through. Somehow, putting something into words made the true emotions come out, and that was what I wanted to do for Rena. I didn’t like seeing her so down and distracted.
“I can’t stop thinking about what must have gone through her head,” she said. “To give up three children? All in one go? And to have them separated is unfathomable. I mean, I guess I get it. It’s hard to get three babies adopted together. But did anyone think about what it could mean in the long run?”
I nodded, letting her talk. I understood her questioning; this was a lot to process.
“I mean, if I put myself in the same shoes, falling pregnant now would kill me. So I guess I would do something similar,” she carried on. “But it’s not the same being on the receiving end.”
“Do you want to meet Zoe?” I asked. “You know you don’t have to. You could let it go and move on with your life as if none of this ever happened.”
“I could,” Rena admitted. “But I will always know now. This happened and even if my life won’t be any different if I ignore the facts, they’ll still be in my head. And I don’t think I’ll be able to live with that. I can’t just push something this big away and pretend it never happened.”
I didn’t answer her. I let the silence stretch between us so she could fill it herself. It was the best way for her to sift through her thoughts and emotions. I was only here to be an ear.
“Maybe I should talk about it with my mom again. Maybe she’ll have advice for me.”
“That’s a good idea,” I offered. “But at the end of it all, you need to do what feels right for you.”
Rena nodded and started folding her clothes and packing it into her bag. I watched her move around as she packed. She was graceful and elegant, even when she wasn’t trying to be. Everything about Rena was beautiful and attractive.
I glanced at my watch. There was still plenty of time before our flight. I started thinking about ways we could spend the time.
My eyes trailed to Rena. I let them slide up and down her body, taking the liberty to stare at her and think dirty thoughts while she was too busy packing to notice. I knew she was going through a lot, but I wasn’t going to push her into anything she couldn’t deal with. It was up to her if we ended up doing anything. But I wanted her again. I wanted her badly.
When Rena was done packing, she turned around and looked at me.
“You’re staring,” she said.
I smiled at her. “Can you blame me?”
She smiled for the first time since we’d returned from the meeting with the PI, and it was beautiful. When Rena smiled, her face lit up.
I stood up and walked toward her.
“You know, we still have a lot of time before we need to make our flight.”
“I packed everything but my traveling clothes,” she said, looking down at what she was wearing.
“Oh, what I have in mind won’t need any clothes.” I grinned wickedly at her. An answering smile spread across Rena’s face, and she looked at me with mischief in her eyes.
She leaned closer to me until she was so close a sigh could press us together. She stood on her toes so that her lips almost brushed against mine. My cock was already hard in my pants, and my mind shorted out, going numb with her seduction. I had been a fool thinking I was fully in charge. When I had given her all the rules in my office, I had been under the illusion that I was in control. I was starting to wonder how often I really was in control of what was going on.
Rena’s eyes slid to my lips, and I wanted her to kiss me. God, the things I would do to her.
“Do you know what I really want to do?” Rena asked.
“What?” I said. My throat was dry, and the sexual tension was so thick around us I could barely breathe.
“Shopping,” Rena whispered and turned around from me. It took me a moment to realize what she’d said.
“Are you kidding me?”
Rena nodded and smiled. This time her expression was sweet and innocent. What a little cocktease.
“Yeah,” she said. “There’s nothing better than retail therapy when I’ve had a rough day.”
I groaned. “Shopping isn’t my favorite.”
Rena shrugged. “You don’t have to come with me.”
But I wasn’t planning on leaving her to shop by herself. I wanted to spend time with her. I couldn’t explain it—I had never wanted to spend time with my conquests before. But there it was. Besides, I didn’t want to pass up the chance of having changeroom sex with her if we could sneak that in. Although, with how she was teasing me and pulling away again, short of me pinning her down and teaching her a lesson, I had a feeling we weren’t going to do it in a changeroom. Or anywhere else.
There was still the flight, though.
“Okay,” I conceded. “We’ll go sho
pping.”
I walked into my room to collect my wallet. I called the car, and ten minutes later we were on our way into town to shop.
***
Rena wasn’t kidding when she said it was retail therapy. She took shopping seriously, going from one shop to the next, picking the maximum number of items at a time to take in the fitting rooms before she went back for more. When we were finally at the first counter to pay, I took out my wallet.
“What are you doing?” Rena asked.
“Why?”
I blinked at her. Wasn’t this what men did? Didn’t they pay for their woman’s clothes? The thought was like a shock to my system—Rena wasn’t my woman.
“I have my own money, thank you,” she said and handed the cashier her card. I watched in irritation as she paid. I had so much money I didn’t know what to do with it, and I knew exactly what Rena earned every month.
At the second store, we went through the whole process again. Rena chose clothes, tried them on, returned what she didn’t like to the shelves, and paid for what she did like. When I took out my wallet a second time, she glared at me.
“You can’t keep trying to pay for me,” Rena said.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to. I earn more than enough to afford my own clothes.”
It irritated me that she wasn’t willing to accept me showering her with gifts. I wanted to spoil her. She was my mistress, of sorts, and that meant I wanted to spend money on her. But she didn’t want any of it.
“Come on,” I said. “At least one thing.”
Rena shook her head. “I’m here to take care of my mood. I told you, retail therapy. Accepting gifts from you isn’t going to make me feel a hell of a lot better, is it?”
“I was hoping it would,” I said.
Rena shook her head again. “Thank you, Brent. But I don’t want your money.”
I didn’t understand what she was trying to say to me. Everyone always wanted my money. What made Rena so different? She knew how much I had, more than anyone else. She was fucking me. I had thought she would at least take my money when I offered it to her, if not try to get it out of me. But she wasn’t like the other women I had been with. The more time I spent with her, the more I got to know her. And I liked every single thing I’d learned about her. I couldn’t believe she had worked for me for a year and only now was I seeing who she really was.
But then, I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to her before. I’d done my work, and she had seen to it that I had everything I needed.
I smiled. In a way, she was doing that now, too.
“I’m going into that tech shop over there,” I said when we walked toward the next stop. “Call me when you’re done.”
Rena nodded, and we split up for a while. When Rena was done with her shopping, she called me. I had studied the products on the market and found I was way ahead of what was readily available over the counter. We headed back to the hotel to collect our bags, and the car took us to the airport.
We were seated in first class, strapped in for takeoff. I had paid for two extra bags filled with Rena’s shopping. She had acquired a whole new wardrobe, by the looks of things. But she was in a better mood. Retail therapy apparently had its merits.
We took off and when the fasten seat belt signed switched off, I unclipped it and stretched out.
“This is amazing,” Rena said, looking around.
“What?” I asked.
“First class.”
I looked around. I guess it was amazing. I always flew first-class, so it wasn’t as exciting anymore. It wasn’t much of anything. It was refreshing to see the world through Rena’s eyes for a change.
I put my hand on her thigh. An air hostess came to us and offered us food and drinks. We both ordered coffee. When she left us, I slid my hand up Rena’s thigh. I had been horny while we were shopping, thinking about the sex we could have had, and of all the things I’d done before, having sex on a plane was a fantasy I hadn’t yet fulfilled.
I leaned over and kissed Rena’s neck. She giggled but squirmed away and pushed my hand off her leg.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. I hadn’t expected her to shut me down. Women didn’t usually reject me. I didn’t like being told no.
Rena leaned toward me, and she had that same look of mischief in her eyes that she had earlier today. With her lips almost against my ear, she gave me shivers when she whispered.
“What I have in mind is much better suited for the bedroom, not a plane.”
My cock twitched at her words. If she had something spectacular in store for me, I would happily wait for her. I leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth.
The kiss caught us both by surprise. I hadn’t expected to do it any more than she had expected me to do it.
I reached for the in-flight magazine and opened it, pretending I was on top of everything, when I didn’t have any idea what I was feeling.
Chapter 15
Rena
We landed back in Chicago and went through the process of collecting our luggage.
“Let me take you home,” Brent said when we walked to the exit.
I nodded. I knew he wanted to be alone with me. Especially after I had been teasing him all day. Being alone with Brent was fine by me. I needed to blow off some steam, so I agreed.
Brent looked pleased, and we walked out to where another car was waiting for us. Brent had drivers on call. I had to admit, it was a pleasure having transport without having to wait for taxis or find parking space. These were the small things that really set people with money apart from the rest of us.
Brent opened the door for me like a gentleman while the chauffeur loaded our bags into the trunk. When we were both in the car and we turned out of the airport, I expected Brent to be all over me. He had been majorly turned on all day, and it had been impossible to miss the bulge in his pants for most of the day. It was flattering that he was so turned on by me. After struggling to get him to notice me for a year, he couldn’t seem to forget about me now.
I looked out of the window at the city sliding by, and my thoughts drifted from Brent and his impressive cock to Morgan and my sister. It was on my mind all the time, even when I tried to forget.
It had been the right thing to do when I had arranged to meet with Morgan. I’d had a lot of questions that were now partially answered. At the same time, I was more confused than ever. I didn’t know how I felt about having a sister and the possibility of meeting her.
When I’d told Morgan that I didn’t want to meet Zoe yet, she had seemed disappointed. I hadn’t asked how long the whole case had been going on for. Maybe I should have. Maybe Zoe had been waiting for me for years. But I wasn’t ready to meet her. Until now, I had seen myself in a certain way. Being an only child was a label of sorts, a way of looking at life. And I was happy. Everything was perfect the way it was.
How much would meeting a sister change that? I doubted she would change my life in a drastic way. We were both adults—it wasn’t like we were going to live together and I’d suddenly have to share my room and my toys. But still, it was a big thing to me, and I wasn’t sure if meeting Zoe would make everything different.
Before I met her, I wanted to talk to my mom one more time. I needed to know what she thought, how she felt about it. I knew my mom would encourage me to do whatever it was that I wanted to do, but it would affect her. She was already hurt that she hadn’t known I had a sister. Or sisters. To tell her I was going to make contact with family I hadn’t grown up with wouldn’t be easy for my mom, no matter how noble she was trying to be about it.
We arrived at my apartment, and I was pulled out of my thoughts. We climbed out of the car, and Brent offered to help me carry my luggage up to my place. Who said chivalry was dead? But Brent was from a different generation where manners and respect still meant something.
“Do you want to stay for a drink?” I asked after Brent carried my suitcases all the way to my bedroom.
H
e nodded. “I’d like that.”
He followed me to the kitchen, and I opened my fridge. “I only have box wine,” I admitted.
“Box wine is perfectly fine.” Brent smiled, but I knew it was a lie. He only had the best of everything, and box wine was probably so far beneath him it had dropped off the food chain completely. But he was being nice. I poured us each a glass, and we sat down together in the living room.
“How are you feeling?” Brent asked. “You seem a little distracted.”
I nodded. “I’m still trying to process all the information. I’m not sure what I feel yet.”
“It’ll take a bit of time. But you should consider yourself lucky. Some people never even find out they have a family.”
I hadn’t looked at it like that. I liked the way he let me look at it.
“I don’t want to talk about it tonight,” I said. “I want to forget and have a good time.”
“Done,” Brent said, and I knew he would do his best to distract me. I had something in mind to occupy my thoughts. When I had finished my glass of wine, I stood up.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
I walked to the bedroom and unzipped one of the suitcases. I changed into lingerie I’d bought when Brent had gone to the tech shop, a red sheer teddy that showed off my breasts. I wore a red thong with it, complete with garter belt, stockings, and high heels that matched. I looked like a model, a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
I turned and looked at my ass in the mirror, wiggling it. I grinned. After what I was planning on doing with Brent, I would better be classified as a fallen angel.
Brent was still in the living room. The wine had taken the edge off, and I felt sexy and daring. I swung my hips from side to side as I walked to the living room. I felt light and airy and on top of my game. I wanted Brent to drool over me.
When he looked up and saw me in my outfit, his reaction was exactly what I had hoped for. He had poured us each another glass of wine, but he gulped his down and put the glass on the coffee table. His eyes darkened, his face filled with desire, and he stood up to stalk toward me.