by CJ Thomas
“It’s my publisher’s place.” She lifted her own mug to her lips, pausing to cast her gaze down. “After he learned about my week of threats, I was given a new assignment.”
My brows raised, curious to know what her new assignment entailed.
“A few days here for a little R-and-R.” She lifted her hand up loosely, palm up in a who cares gesture.
“You seem relaxed,” I commented as my eyes drifted over her lowered shoulders.
“It’s been a while since I’ve taken some time off.” She set her espresso mug down on the counter in front of her. “Besides, here it’s more laid back than the office and my stuffy apartment.”
I turned my attention outside. Ocean swells lazily came to shore in their normal ebb and flow. With the windows open, I breathed in the salty air, appreciating what a short drive to the beach could do for a man’s soul. Even with my short time here, I could already feel my own head clearing. I turned my attention back to Sylvia who was lost inside her own thoughts. “So, have the threats stopped?”
She held her breath and her posture stiffened before she nodded. “Just as I suspected they would.”
The investigation into Maria Greer’s death was an interesting case that was still evolving. Whoever was behind the threats had to be close, aware of whatever it was Sylvia was working to uncover. And it was those secrets that seemed to have someone very paranoid.
“I met with Wesley Reid.” I looked up at her from under my brow.
She let out the breath she was holding inside her chest and shifted her weight to her opposite leg. Suddenly her eyes woke up, eager to know what I had learned. “And did you find out anything?”
I cast my gaze back to my fingers lightly drumming on the counter. She had told me to go to Wes, knowing that he knew more about Nash Brooks’s involvement with Maria, suspecting that there may be more to her death than what the police had collected and put into evidence.
Sylvia stepped forward. “Was I right?” Her tone was sharp.
I hooked my finger through the mug handle, lifting it to my mouth before slowly nodding. “Wes knew about Nash and Maria’s time together.” There was a glimmer of hope flashing across Sylvia’s eyes when I met her gaze. “And his attraction to his own interns.”
Then her face twisted as her eyebrows drew together.
“What is it?” I asked, knowing something had gone off inside her head.
“Nash—” Her eyes darted across my face as she tried to keep up with her own thoughts. “He’s dating an intern now.”
I gave her a questioning look. “Alex Grace?”
“Yeah.” Her tone was soft. “She’s also an intern.”
“Not anymore.” My tongue darted out of my mouth, wetting my lips. “Promoted to Assistant Director.”
“But they’re still dating?”
“As far as I know. Why? Did you hear something that would cause concern for Alex’s safety?”
Sylvia let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her face. “No.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s just that his relationship with Alex began in the same manner as it did with Maria.” She turned, ran her hand over her hair, and cursed. “Kelly, don’t you see?”
My eyes narrowed.
She turned back around to face me. “If Nash begins to take her to Mint, then who knows what will happen next.”
I could see her concern but without first talking to Nash myself, I wasn’t going to make the leap to saying Nash was the one who murdered Maria. “How do you know Nash is a member of Mint?”
Her mouth slackened as she shook her head. “C’mon. Don’t you know me by now? It’s what I do. Report on celebrities and the lives they lead. Once word spread about Wes’s new nightclub, it was impossible for me—and others in the industry—to not want to know more about what went on once the doors were closed. If it wasn’t for the secrecy behind it all, I probably would have pursued another story. But,” her adoration for the story hit her eyes, “I couldn’t let it go. I needed to know who was visiting, what they were doing, and why the rest of the world wasn’t invited to the hottest new party in town.”
I didn’t know if she knew my own involvement with Mint or that I, too, partook in the lifestyle that remained exclusively underground and out of sight. And for what it was worth, it didn’t matter. This was about connecting the dots and seeing if Sylvia was as a reliable source as I hoped she was. “But my understanding was that Nash stopped coming.” I redirected our conversation back on point.
Her lips parted slightly. “That’s my understanding too.”
“But there is something that I’m unclear on.”
“Lay it on me.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Maybe I can help.”
“I’m just not sure if Nash stopped attending the club before or after Maria’s death.”
We locked eyes, looking into the depths of each other’s thoughts for the answers we sought, like two chess players strategizing the next move in hopes of achieving a checkmate. If Sylvia wanted to make me believe that Nash Brooks could be the killer—when I already suspected Mario Jimenez of being framed—then her answer to my question could forever change the direction of the investigation into the murder of Maria Greer and my defense of Mario Jimenez. “Do you know?” I asked.
“After,” she said firmly. “Definitely after.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” I murmured, feeling a knot twist in my gut.
I fought to hide the regret I felt threatening to pull my face into a frown. Dropping my gaze away from her, I picked up my espresso from the counter and brought it to my lips. Deep inside I hoped that she was wrong, that her answer was only a slip in memory from the events that led us to where we were today. Because I distinctly remembered Wes telling me that Nash stopped visiting his club before Maria’s death.
Now I didn’t know who to believe.
After a few minutes of silence, Sylvia finally asked, “So, whatever happened with that girl you were chasing the other day? You know, the one I ran into when leaving your penthouse.”
Warmth spread up my chest at the mere thought of Kendra. I would be seeing her right after I was done here and with her contract signed and the Madam giving me permission to have her exclusively for a month, I had a lot to look forward to. “You said she looked familiar—”
Sylvia nodded. “She’s a friend of Alex Grace. Did you know that?”
I couldn’t help but notice the irony of the web of connections between the same people whose characters we now questioned. “It’s funny, isn’t it?”
Sylvia pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side.
“How we’re all connected.”
She swallowed and narrowed her eyes.
“There was something else Wes told me.”
“Sounds like you want to tell me what that is.”
“Only if you want to hear it.”
“Should I?”
“Might clear some things up for both of us.”
“Then by all means, do tell.” Her brows raised.
“I just wonder why you failed to mention it to me first.” I looked her in the eye, but she refused to look back. “Sylvia, why didn’t you mention that you also had a one-night stand with Nash?”
She stepped away and moved to the window.
I flattened my feet and stood, stuffing my hands in my pants pockets. “Do you know how this looks, keeping a secret like that?”
“I do,” she whispered. “But I wasn’t the one to murder Maria.” Sylvia spun around and let her words fly fast off her tongue.
My shoulders shrugged as I moved to the front door, ready to make my exit. With one hand on the knob, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “It makes me wonder if the death threats you received were even real.”
Her face ticked at the accusation. “I didn’t make that up! Kelly, you must believe me.”
“Look at it from my angle. How can I not speculate?” I opened the door. “Then again, if you did make it all up
, it’s not a bad diversion to keep me from looking into your own relationship with the very same man you’re convinced killed Maria.”
Sylvia dropped her hands to her sides, balling them into tiny fists as her face fumed red. “I think you better leave.”
“Thanks for the coffee.” I smiled. “I’m sure we’ll be in touch.”
3
Kendra
“What took you so long?” I questioned Kelly the moment I opened the door.
After leaving Alex’s in a hurry, thinking that he would be arriving to my place soon, I didn’t think much about anything other than making sure I was home by the time he arrived.
Kelly leaned in for a kiss and apologized. “The meeting took longer than I anticipated.”
My hands reached out and clamped around his tight waistline before sliding up the ripple of his abs, hiding perfectly behind the thin white cotton button-up he was wearing. I tugged him inside and immediately wrapped my limbs around him, needing him to know just how much I’d missed him.
His thick lips came crashing over mine once again and I parted my mouth, sucking his tongue. Kelly was so sexy in his three-piece suit, having the look of the professional lawyer—ready to save the world—and I couldn’t help but squeeze him tighter. He swirled his tongue against mine, tasting of creamy espresso. “God, I’ve missed you,” he murmured against my lips.
My feet left the ground and I wrapped my legs around him, his hands quickly finding the globes of my ass. His fingers spread, then curled, beginning to massage the deep tissue I knew he loved so much. “How much have you missed me?”
He chuckled. “As much as you missed me.”
“Impossible.” I hadn’t bothered dressing in anything other than something I knew to be comfortable and accessible. With Kelly one thing was certain, I could always expect the unexpected. “So, Mr. Black,” I purred, “tell me when the thirty days of your ownership officially begins.”
He smiled, leaning in close to kiss the tip of my nose. “Bella, I don’t want you to think of this arrangement as anything other than mutual, between two consenting adults.”
I hung off of him, sliding my body down far enough to rub my aching clit over his hardness. “Please, save the formality for someone else.”
The vibration from his deep chuckle spread to my limbs, only intensifying the aching pain he inflicted upon my raging desire.
“And, besides, the Madam remains the middleman in this transaction. Let’s not be fooled into thinking that this is anything other than what it really is.”
“And how would you describe what this is?” His husky voice dropped a note deeper.
“The most beautiful natural disaster.” I grinned.
He tipped his head back and laughed.
When his eyes came to rest on mine, he adjusted me to feel more of his steeled rod throbbing behind his zipper. I was eager for him to bed me. “Take me to my bedroom.”
“I didn’t take you to be an early riser.”
“There’s nothing better than hot sex in the morning.” I pressed my juicy lips against his. “Now, take me to my bedroom,” I demanded.
His smile crinkled his eyes. “Begging isn’t a good quality unless solicited.”
“Then give me permission, Counselor.” I unhooked my ankles and dropped the balls of my feet back to the floor, tugging on Kelly’s hand, silently pleading with him to follow me to the back room.
I wanted nothing more than to rid my flesh of my clothes and have his hot tongue work its way over my body until he slammed his thick girth inside me. I’d been on fire, eagerly awaiting his arrival, my thoughts filled with memories of what exactly he was capable of doing to me—how he could unwind me so easily. I couldn’t take it anymore. Waiting was for the birds. “Tell me to beg. I want to beg.”
He clucked his tongue, kissed me one more time, this time with a little more tongue, and said, “That’s not how this works.”
When he let go of my hand, I was left feeling lost. I wanted to say something but I couldn’t. My thoughts were scrambled, my feelings all over the place. But when I watched him skirt past me and head straight to the back—toward my bedroom—a sense of hope filled me, making me think that maybe he was listening to my needs.
I padded lightly on bare feet, following three steps behind him. Not once did he turn to look back, and I was left questioning whether or not I should follow. I knew what I wanted—needed. For Kelly to sex me up. But other than his hard on, his actions spoke otherwise. With Kelly, he was full of surprises and I wondered if this was his way of giving me what I wanted while remaining in control. The agony of lust burned deep inside me and I just didn’t have time to be playing games like this.
He disappeared out of sight and I heard my closet doors open a second later. By the time I stepped foot inside my bedroom, Kelly was already fingering his way through my clothes. This was nearly a repeat of the last time he visited, the only difference now was that he was delving into the more personal areas of my life instead of the kitchen. “What are you looking for?” I asked.
Kelly didn’t respond and I watched as he dug through my closet.
Clothes were everything to me. Fashion let others know the type of person I was. What mood I was in, how I felt, the type of social circles I wanted to be associated with. Without my personal style, I wouldn’t be the person I was. I strived daily to be perfect, but when Kelly didn’t say anything during his deep dive into my closet, my heart raced and my palms grew sweaty. “I was hoping that clothes wouldn’t be part of the equation,” I said, hoping to get some kind of reaction out of him.
He moved some hangers to the side, turned his head, and looked at me. “Don’t worry. We’ll get there soon enough.”
He pecked my cheek as he moved past me on his way to the bathroom. Again, he floated his way through the room, opening cabinets, checking product labels, smelling soaps, and hooking his finger through necklaces dangling under the mirror. There wasn’t an item he didn’t inspect. I was thinking he just wanted to make sure I was the person he thought I was.
“Find everything you need?” I said in my most sarcastic tone, leaning against the doorframe with my arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles.
He lifted his gaze, meeting his own reflection staring back at him in the mirror. “I have a request.”
My tongue slid to the corner of my mouth. “And what would that be?”
“As long as you’re with me,” he turned his head to look at me, “I want you to shower as soon as you wake up, and again in the evening after the day is done.”
I shrugged, thinking that on most days I already did that. “No problem. Anything else, Chief?”
He sauntered over to me with a sexy glimmer in his eye that left me breathless. Kelly clamped his fingers over both my arms, sliding his hands down my arms, past my elbows, over my wrists, until finding my fingers dancing with his. He squeezed each one of them, then dropped his gaze to my nails. “This is unacceptable,” he said, pointing out a nail where the paint had chipped. “Fix it.”
“Been meaning to do it.” My lids hooded over when I caught his dark eyes searing into mine. “On. The. List.”
He reached around my waist, pulling me tight against his solid chest, and kissed me. “And don’t let it happen again.”
Naturally, I reached for him when he let me go, turning his back and walking toward the shower. “I need you to be perfect.” He twisted to look over his shoulder.
I swallowed down the fear that constricted my throat. A genuine distress prickled my skin, afraid to let him down.
But I’d never tell him that. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted this—us—to be perfect—just like he wanted of me. “Am I not already?”
He ignored my comment and said, “That includes the way you eat.”
I thought about my empty fridge, how I’d been basically living with Alex, eating whatever she had available.
“Sour milk and stale cereal won’t cut it.” His tone commanded my att
ention.
“Kelly, that wasn’t normal for me.” I shook my head, reaching behind to rub my neck. “I’ve been staying most nights with a friend.” When he didn’t react, it was like I was talking to deaf ears. Was this man serious?
But I knew he was. And at this point, I’d say anything to take his mind off of his silly demands and get back to concentrating on making me wet and him hard. I was so worked up—still making up for the period of abstinence the Madam forced me to go through—that all I could think about was getting fucked.
Kelly stopped in front of the mirror again, leaning his face close to it. I watched him lick the pad of his thumb and smooth out each of his eyebrows before saying, “And one more thing.”
I held my breath. He strode over to me with his hands inside his pockets. Then I watched with a fluttering heart as one hand lifted to my lips. He tugged on my bottom lip with his tongue, dropped his head a whisper away, and murmured, “I’ll require you to have sex with me a minimum of three times a week.”
I reached up to dig my nails into the nape of his neck. “Make it five and we have a deal.”
He chuckled and slid his tongue past the seam of my lips, thrusting it hard against mine. “Then I guess I don’t have to tell you, you’ll have to submit to my desire whenever I’m in need.”
Kelly caged me with his large, strong arms and I reached for his zipper, pulling it down. “Most likely not,” I said, reaching inside and wrapping my fingers around his hot shaft. Anything to get laid, I thought.
Frankly, I saw this whole thirty days of ownership to be nothing more than a stupid game Kelly needed in order to take his mind off of the awful realities of his job. I was happy to play along, knowing that my future rested in both his and the Madam’s hands. And as long as I continued getting what I wanted, then everyone won. There was little reason not to go along with it.
“Are you in need now, Counselor?” I pumped his shaft.
Kelly threaded his hand through my hair, yanked, and stepped away.
My brows knitted, giving him a look of disappointment. “Fine. If my place doesn’t do it for you, how about we go to yours? I’d love to see your main residence now that my lips are sealed shut.”