“You never have,” she snapped. “You think we all agree with you, and that is the end of everything. Well, newsflash, I make up my own mind.”
He growled, and she lifted her chin in challenge. “I want your daughter back here,” he said. “She belongs with us not with some madam.”
“I tend to agree,” his son said, throwing his wife a look. “I don’t care if she’s gay, but I won’t abide her sleeping with a madam.”
“Oh, please,” Melissa muttered. “It’s not that she’s fooling around with Alexi that’s the problem, is it?” She held her husband’s gaze before turning back to Charles. “I hear what people say about Alexi. She’s got a hand in the running of this city, too, and she’s not one to back down.”
“She’s nobody,” Charles thundered. “She doesn’t have any power. This city belongs to me.”
“If you believed that, you wouldn’t be worried about what she’s doing with Tatiana. Alexi has contacts that she might use to see you in jail.”
“She might have hired the person who killed your son!”
“Good. He was becoming nothing more than a monster. That someone shot him dead like a dog in his office was a service to us.”
Charles threw his glass at her, and it merely skirted around her, hitting his wife in the leg. She leaped up with a cry.
“Grandma. Are you okay?” April asked.
“No,” she said, pain in her eyes. “Charles, get control of yourself.”
“April, help her to her room,” Melissa said.
After they left, Charles was tempted to strangle her for moving and allowing his wife to be harmed, but he reined his rage in, slightly.
“I can’t believe you’d say that about your own son,” Charles snarled.
“I spoke the truth, and if Daryl would admit it, he’d agree with me,” Melissa said. “Trevor was out of hand and you indulged him.”
Charles sighed. “Felix said someone was gunning for the family,” he said. “Five by Five. They more than likely killed Trevor.”
“You shouldn’t have moved on them for no reason,” Melissa said.
“You may as well batten down the hatches because I’m going to take their new man out no matter what it takes.”
“You’ll get us all killed,” Daryl commented. “If you don’t leave them alone.”
“I just need the family to stop fracturing,” Charles thundered.
“We’re not fracturing, Dad,” Daryl muttered. “I’ll talk to Tatiana, and you need to handle Alexi carefully. She can be an asset or a problem.”
“Since you wanted to connect Tatiana with power, make Alexi an ally,” Melissa said. “Especially now that you know she didn’t kill Trevor.”
“I’ll only compromise so far with her,” Charles vowed coldly.
“Just make sure your crap doesn’t rebound onto my daughter, Charles, or you’ll have more than Alexi to deal with.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tatiana stirred the sauce and inhaled deeply. “Can you smell all that goodness?”
“I smell too much cilantro.”
“Oh, please,” Tatiana said with a laugh. “It’s perfect. Come taste.” She dipped the spoon into the saucepan and held it out, her hand under it to catch the drip.
Alexi obliged her, taking a taste. “It’s good, but too much basil.”
“Your super nose can’t tell the difference between basil and cilantro,” she teased.
Alexi sniffed. “It’s fine. Let me finish up the veggies.”
Tatiana set the spoon aside and went to pour herself a glass of wine. “Do you ever think about getting married?”
“Not often,” Alexi replied. “Why?”
“I want to get married and have a few kids,” she said, leaning her hip against the counter. “Do you want kids?”
“I’m not against them,” Alexi replied. “I could afford a nanny.”
“I wouldn’t want one. I’d want to raise my kids.”
“Be a stay-at-home-mom?”
“Would you marry a woman like that?”
Alexi turned to look at her. “As long as she had some outside interest other than me and the kids.”
“Charity work like my mother until the kids are old enough to have lots of activities.” Tatiana smiled. “And when our kids are grown, I’d want to travel and let them live their lives.”
“Sounds good,” Alexi murmured. “A new city every three months.”
“You could afford that?”
Alexi shrugged. “Is money a deal breaker?”
“Sort of,” she said. “I mean I want a woman who makes a good living, but I’ll work if I have to.”
“Investments will make a nice retirement possible,” Alexi told her. “But even if my kids don’t want to manage the clubs, I won’t be letting them go.”
“I understand,” Tatiana replied. “Just so long as you don’t cheat on me it won’t matter. Business is business.”
“Do you mean that?” Alexi asked.
She nodded and took a sip of her wine. Tatiana had always known she’d never marry a pauper. Being on her own had made her appreciate the life she’d had growing up where she wanted for nothing.
However, Tatiana had never expected to find that the reality of maintaining or accumulating wealth wasn’t always as cut and dried as being a doctor or lawyer and making sound investments.
Alexi came to her and stroked her cheek. “I don’t mind being used for my money, Tia, but I’d never marry for anything but love.”
She caressed Alexi’s arm. “I like you. I want to be with you. I don’t know your money yet.”
Alexi’s lips twitched in humor. “Like is a place to start.” She kissed the tip of Tia’s nose.
Tatiana leaned into Alexi. “It’s more than that.”
Alexi nodded slowly in understanding. “I’m not in with the mob, Tia, but I can be as dangerous as they are sometimes.”
“Do me a favor?”
“Ask.”
“Don’t deceive me about what you do when I ask,” Tatiana told her. She didn’t blame her grandmother for standing by her man. She did blame them for supporting her brother in his wrongdoing.
“I’ll give you trust, just don’t violate it, baby,” Alexi crooned.
“I ask the same of you,” Tatiana said.
“That’s a given,” Alexi replied, pulling her closer.
Tatiana urged Alexi’s head down for a kiss. She moaned and strained closer to Alexi as she wrapped her arms around her neck. Tatiana’s energy pulsed inside her, and she allowed a thread to escape.
Alexi purred, and Tatiana smiled. Alexi was hers. She rubbed her nose against Alexi’s.
“I’m falling for you, Alexi,” Tatiana said. This could be a relationship she regretted, but Tatiana wanted to take that risk despite the damage it could do to not just her heart.
“I’m falling for you, too, my sweet, sweet Tia.” She nipped Tatiana’s bottom lip. “Let’s have dinner before it gets cold.”
Tatiana rubbed against Alexi but let her go. She watched, surveying Alexi’s body and enjoying the view.
Smiling, she turned away. I have a hot woman.
They got the food on the table and sat down. Tatiana said a brief blessing, and they dug in. Tatiana enjoyed the light conversation and long looks they shared. She liked the easiness and warmth that made her feel as if she’d known Alexi forever.
After dinner, Tatiana helped clear the table and load the dishwasher.
“I’m having a nice time.”
“Me too,” Alexi said after closing the dishwasher. “You want coffee? I have some cookies.”
“Sounds good,” Tatiana said. “Got any good movies? We could watch one.”
“You can go check them out. My collection isn’t that big. I have more audiobooks than movies.”
Tatiana snickered. “I’ll have to change that.” She exited the kitchen and leafed through the small collection of DVDs on the shelf next to the TV.
You are not kiddi
ng.
Tatiana selected a DVD and slipped it into the player and turned on the TV. She dropped onto the couch and picked up the remote from the coffee table.
The room was neatly arranged, with a masculine edge and nice paintings on the wall.
Alexi joined her with a tray and set it down before joining Tatiana. She poured the coffee, and Tatiana added cream to hers before taking a sip and reaching for a cookie.
“Where did you get these?” she asked. “They’re good.”
“The cook,” Alexi told her and stirred her own coffee.
“The club’s cook?” She finished off her cookie and leaned back against the couch.
“Mm-hmm.”
Alexi sat back, too, and Tatiana rested her head on her shoulder as they watched TV. She put her hand on Alexi’s firm stomach and lightly stroked. Alexi purred, and she smiled and kissed the side of her neck.
“I could get used to you purring for me.”
Alexi grunted, and Tatiana laughed softly as she reached up to pull Alexi’s head down for a kiss. Alexi opened for her, and Tatiana slipped her tongue into her mouth, slowly tasting the coffee on Alexi.
Tatiana deepened the kiss, pushing her fingers into Alexi’s hair and tugging lightly.
Alexi growled, and Tatiana strained closer sliding on to Alexi’s lap without breaking the kiss. She moaned, lifting her head to look down at her lover. Then, ran her hands up Alexi’s chest.
“You feel good,” Tatiana murmured and moved slowly against her, so their clits brushed.
Alexi hissed, and Tatiana smiled.
“I know how much you love being in control, kitty, but let me pet you,” Tatiana said and cupped Alexi’s breasts. “Let me make you come.”
“You don’t have to work too hard at that,” Alexi told her breathlessly. “Just take off your clothes.”
Tatiana laughed. “Not yet,” she said. She undid the button of Alexi’s pants and slid her hand down inside over bare pussy lips. “Do you have to shave?”
“I don’t have to,” she murmured. “It’s a perk of my animal genetics.”
“Lucky you, because I wax and it hurts like hell, but I admit it’s worth it.” She slipped her fingers past the plump lips. She found the firm bundle of nerves and pinched.
Alexi groaned, putting a hand on Tatiana’s hip.
“That night you picked me up in the rain, I thought you were so hot,” Tatiana said. “I wanted to have sex with you right there in your car.”
“You did?” Her brows lifted.
“Getting me up to your room wasn’t that hard, was it?” She drew her finger around Alexi’s clit finding it hard. Curious as to how Alexi would react, Tatiana fingered the ring, and Alexi purred.
“I like that,” Alexi murmured.
Tatiana smiled, filing that away for future reference. Then, she pushed a single finger into her heated center, finding Alexi wet.
“I need three fingers, baby,” she said.
Tatiana kissed Alexi as she filled her, using her thumb to work her clit, determined to give Alexi the pleasure she’d given her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alexi growled. The pleasure of Tatiana’s fingers inside her made her crazy as she creamed around them. She purred, her jaguar savoring the contact as much as the woman.
Alexi broke the kiss and traced her lips along the side of Tatiana’s neck and bit her, the animal needing to mark her.
Tatiana arched into her as she drove her fingers in, pulled them out and thrust them back in, hitting her sweet spots with ease as she took her. God, it felt so good she thought she was going to come way too soon.
A thumb teased her clit, and Alexi squirmed. “Tia.”
Tatiana drew her fingers from her tight sheath and rubbed sensually against her. Alexi gripped her hips moving with her, her entire body on fire. She moaned as pleasure ripped through her.
The brown of Tatiana’s eyes mingled with blue making her wonder why they did that every time they had sex. The energy coming off her was warm and seductive, making Alexi’s cat crazy wanting to bind her to them.
The magic was like catnip, a lure she couldn’t resist, and she gave in to it just like every other time. Alexi pushed up the simple dress Tatiana still wore and jerked the leg band of her panties to one side and pushed two fingers into her.
She drove them in as Tatiana ground against her, her eyes a mix of blue and brown now. Her desire was a sensual scent that radiated up from her pussy to fill Alexi’s nostrils. She wanted to eat her and promised herself she would later.
For now, she fucked her with a cadence that matched Tatiana’s movements. As she became more aroused, Alexi drove her fingers in faster, and Tatiana moaned.
“Alexi,” she cried. “I’m—uh-ah!” She let out a scream as she came hard around her fingers.
Tatiana trembled in her arms, her body still tight from her orgasm, but she didn’t stop moving and Alexi lowered her head and bit her again as she came, too.
“Damn, Tia,” Alexi panted. “You’re so fucking good it drives me insane.”
Tatiana settled against her. “I can’t move,” Tatiana said. “You always leave me too lazy. That should be a crime.”
“That should be a requirement,” Alexi said with a laugh and drew her fingers from Tatiana’s sticky pussy. “My phone’s ringing.” She stood up, and Tatiana slid to the floor.
“Don’t take too long. I’m not done with you,” Tatiana promised, giving her a smoldering look.
Alexi blew her a kiss and headed to her bedroom for the phone. She washed her hands before picking it up.
“What is it?” she asked quietly. Zoe wouldn’t have disturbed her without a reason.
“I just got a call from Detective Moore in narcotics,” she said.
“So?”
“There was trouble tonight. A stash house that used to belong to Five by Five was hit. They were sitting on the house because of rumors of cocaine and heroin with a street value of half mill inside.”
“Zoe, tell me why this is my problem,” she said impatiently.
“One of your girls was there. The house was hit by Breakers no doubt. The girl was hiding and escaped unhurt. She said she was making a buy for you.”
“What?” she demanded, anger rising in her.
“Moore’s coming by to talk to you,” she said. “What do you want to do about the girl?”
“I—who is she?”
“She’s one of the new girls. Jalisa something.”
“Is she in lock-up?”
“Yep. For now.”
“She was a favorite of Trevor’s. Grandpa might have put her up to making trouble.”
“So, you want to hold ‘em?” Zoe asked.
“For now. I’m on my way down,” Alexi said. “If Moore gets there before I do, show her to the office.”
“Will do.”
She ended the call with a sigh and went to clean up. Alexi put on some panties and changed her pants before heading back to the living room where Tatiana was curled on the couch, curls cascading down her shoulders, waiting for her with her dress hiked up to her thighs.
Damn she was so tempted to stay.
“Baby, I’ve got to go down,” Alexi said as she made her way to the couch. “Sorry about this. I’ll get it taken care of as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll change while I wait,” Tatiana said and stood.
Tatiana rubbed against her, and Alexi purred before kissing her.
“See you in a minute.” Tatiana headed for the bedroom.
She groaned inwardly. “Yeah.” Alexi hurried down.
When she got to her office the slim five-foot-nine-inch Detective Moore was seated in front of her desk with a tall glass of iced tea in hand.
Moore was a white woman with short blonde hair and penetrating gray eyes. She played here on occasion, which was how Alexi had first met her.
“What’s the what, Shayna?” she asked. She often used the cop’s first name when they were alone.
Shayna pulled her phone from the pocket of her pants and pulled something up on it and handed it over.
“I took some shots of her. She has a tat on her left arm. It’s an arrow.”
“Breakers’ trick girl,” Alexi said. The arrow indicated a sleeper whose job was to cause problems for a target or gain information.
They were often referred to as tricks because they used their looks and their bodies to accomplish their goal.
“Not only that, where I found the girl hiding, she would have been hit by the gunfire, and I suspect the blood on her shirt was from a man she killed,” Moore told her. “Her story is, she was sent to make a buy for you. Cocaine. You give it to some of your girls to make them perform.”
“Fuck.” This would give the FBI cause for a warrant.
“I called Zoe as soon as I finished talking to her. Vice will be getting a warrant as soon as possible to search the premises, and she said you recently had the agent, Naomi, killed because she wouldn’t perform. They’ll be questioning you over that.”
“Thanks, Shayna. Is the girl still in lockup?”
“Yeah. She’ll be there at least through the weekend unless someone pushes for release.”
“If they do, let me know who,” Alexi told her.
“Done deal.” Shayna stood. “I’ve got to go.”
“Thanks Shayna, and if you come across anything pertaining to the agent let me know.”
“Feds are keeping it hush-hush,” Shayna told her. “They want us to let them know if we get anything on her, and so far the only thing that’s popped is her connection with a dealer, Baynard.”
“What did she get on him that put Breakers onto her?” Alexi asked.
“Some intel on hits Charles ordered. Most of the stuff is drug related,” Shayna told her. “We haven’t seen it. There is rumor she had a small list of clients who played at Frolic including a couple of cops.”
“If you find that file, I want it.”
“Goes without saying, but I’m telling you now, if my name is there, I’m destroying part.”
Alexi shrugged. She had her own files. “Do what you have to,” she answered.
As soon as the cop was gone, Alexi made a call and then called Zoe back in.
The Madam's Lover Page 16