When I turned toward the agents, they were glancing among themselves until Scarlett asked, “Have you been in touch with Calvin?”
“I never got his number.”
“You never got his number?” Brett asked.
My stomach flipped again as my eyes traced back to his. “When I take someone’s number, it’s because I want to talk to them, and I make an effort to reach out. Calvin was a mistake, and he meant nothing to me. He still didn’t when I woke up the morning after.”
And, when I got back to LA, I would be throwing out the handwritten number Brett had given me the morning after we slept together. I wasn’t sure why I had kept it, as I should have tossed it days ago.
“There are pictures of you from last night. It looks like you were at a party, and you were dancing on a table,” Max said.
Someone from the party must have taken those and shared them online. I was sure that was how my agent had known where I was when he called.
“In the media’s eyes, it comes across as if you don’t care that the video went viral,” Brett said.
I don’t care?
I shook my head, pulling Eve’s jacket a little tighter around me.
I’d been completely professional up until this point, but to accuse me of not caring was where I drew the line.
“I’d been living in my closet since the alert went out. I hadn’t eaten; I hadn’t slept. I don’t even remember leaving the room to pee.” I glared at Brett, my voice getting much louder. “My whole world was crumbling, and the people who were supposed to be helping me had completely vanished. I don’t even have my parents to turn to because they died three years ago in a car crash.”
I looked to the right, away from him, away from that coldness. “Someone needed to throw my ass in the shower and make me feel like I had a reason to live. So, that’s what my best friend did. She brought me to another friend’s house where it was just supposed to be a few girls having a quiet night to help me get my mind off things. We had a couple of drinks and played some games. Then, the music turned on, and we wanted to dance. My best friend jumped on a table, and I joined her; it was completely innocent. But then a few people showed up and a few more, and then things got out of control. These strangers were calling me a slut and a whore. A guy put his hands all over me and…” I stopped to take a breath. “I had to hide in the fucking bathroom until Tim picked me up. Now, we’re here.” I lifted my foot, so they could see the slipper. “I didn’t even have time to grab my shoes.” As my slipper went back on the floor, I focused my gaze on Brett, my eyes not wavering one bit.
Finally, Max broke the silence with, “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. You have to speak to the police. The hotel needs to be questioned, and their security tapes have to be viewed. Calvin has to be found, and you need to formally press charges against him, assuming he’s the one who set this up. It’s an easy assumption, given that he blurred his face and masked his voice.”
“What are you looking for, James?” Brett asked, and I stared at his lips as he spoke.
Emotion poured through my chest as I answered, “I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old to get to where I am.” Those feelings moved up my throat and into my voice, and I did nothing to stop it. “Some asshole has taken that all away from me. I want it back. I want all of it back. And I want Calvin prosecuted, so the world knows I’m not the slut everyone is calling me.”
I put my hand under my throat, trying to calm whatever was exploding in there. I watched Jack write something down on a piece of paper and slide it over to Brett. Brett read it, his jaw flexing as he bit down.
His eyes then moved to mine. “I need everyone to clear the room. James and I need to talk.” When no one immediately got up, he growled, “All of you, out.” He looked at Tim. “You, too.”
Tim waited for me to give him a nod, a confirmation that I would be fine, and he got up from his chair and left.
I heard everyone else follow.
Now, it was just Brett and me, a giant table separating our chairs, and way too much silence.
Brett
“You’re such an asshole,” James said, breaking the silence after everyone left the conference room.
She looked so tiny in that chair.
Tired.
Defeated.
And sexy as fuck.
“You’ve only seen my nice side,” I told her. “You haven’t seen my asshole side yet.”
When I’d walked into the room and first spoken, I had seen the jolt that went through her body. Her back had gone straight, her hands grabbing those armrests like she was about to fall out of her goddamn seat. I had seen her heavy breathing, the emotion that filled her face when she finally looked at me.
I’d had a few minutes to prepare and get my shit in check.
Based on her reaction and what Tim had told us, James hadn’t gotten that kind of warning.
“You kicked everyone out of the room, so what do you want, Brett?” she snapped.
I didn’t like the anger in her eyes or the furrow between her brows.
Her face was too beautiful for that.
“Do you want to work with me, James?”
She laughed, and it sounded full of sarcasm. “I don’t even know who the hell you are.”
“That’s not true.”
She pushed her hands onto the table. “I thought you were an attorney.” Her eyelids narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me your last name?”
“You never asked.”
“I asked—”
“No, you asked me what I did, and I answered.”
“That wasn’t the correct answer. That was a fucking lie.”
Her voice was becoming sharper. I didn’t like it.
“I didn’t lie,” I growled. “I went to law school, I passed the bar in California and Florida, and my license is active. That makes me an attorney. I just don’t practice law.”
“You can spin it any way you want, Brett, but you’re an agent, and you work in the industry. You should have told me.” She pushed back in her seat with her arms crossed, covering those gorgeous tits. “And, the second that alert aired, you threw me away.”
My jaw clenched.
She was right.
I hated to fucking admit it, but she was.
The whole time I’d been listening to her tell the story about the sex tape, I’d expected her to say it happened within the last month. Hearing that it was three months ago had been a surprise.
One that pleased me.
But one that still made me look like an asshole in her eyes.
“I thought you had filmed it recently.”
“You thought…” And then her voice drifted off, as though she were processing what I had just said. “You thought I’d had sex with him while we were talking? You thought I’d cheated?”
“No.”
“That’s what it would be.”
“We’d have to be together for that to happen. We weren’t.”
She shook her head. “Don’t you get it? I wasn’t talking to anyone else. It was just you. You were all I thought about. So, in my mind, that tied us together, and that’s why it hurt so badly when you threw me away.”
“Stop saying that.”
“It’s what you fucking did.”
“James—”
“I know what it feels like to be cheated on. I wouldn’t ever put anyone through that.” She stood and walked over to the windows, pressing her hand on the glass. She stayed just like that for several seconds, looking at the view, and then she slowly turned around. There was even more anger in her eyes. “Did you fuck me that night just to get my business?”
My rage tripled hers.
I shoved myself away from the table, and by the time I reached her, she’d turned toward the windows again. My arms surrounded hers in a cage, my face dipping into her hair—the same way I had when we met, except I was behind her now.
“Get that out of your head,” I barked, my teeth tight, my words commandin
g. “Every look you gave me at the bar, every word you said to me, every minute of silence that passed between us made my dick that much harder. I couldn’t stop touching you, and I didn’t want to. And I didn’t want the night to end without my tongue licking your cunt. That’s why I fucked you, James.”
She didn’t move, nor did she respond.
“Tell me what you want from me,” I said.
“I want to know why you didn’t text me back or answer my call. I want to know why I meant so little to you.” There was so much pain in her voice. “I gave you my body, Brett. I held nothing back. And, every time we spoke on the phone, I told you so much about myself. I begged you to come to LA. I sent you pictures, hoping they would entice you to get on a plane. What else could I have done? Where did I fuck up?”
“Stop.”
Both of her hands were now pushing into the glass. “There must be someone else because I really thought you wanted me. Or maybe you just realized I wasn’t enough.”
She sounded hurt. Pissed. Confused.
She had every right to be.
Moving quickly, not giving her a chance to react, I turned her around to face me, gripping her waist with all my strength. “Stop it, James, or I’m going to bend you over that table and spank your fucking ass until it’s red.”
“Had you picked up the phone, you could have been spanking me nights ago. Let me go. Now.”
My teeth ground at the thought of that, and I pulled her body up against mine. “You were enough,” I hissed, my lips moving to the side of her face.
She pushed my mouth off her and tried wiggling out of my grip. “Get away from me.”
I grabbed her wrists and held them together. “James, listen to me, you were more than enough.” I went in again, my lips now close to hers. “There was never anyone else. Only you. I couldn’t get you off my mind. You need to believe that.” I ground my cock into her stomach. “You make me so fucking hard.” I twisted my hips, giving her my whole length. “Do you feel that? Do you feel what you do to me?”
Her body was still so rigid.
“Do you want an apology? Is that what you’re looking for?” I breathed each word into her face. “Fine, I should have given you a chance to explain.”
Her body relaxed a little.
“I fucked up.” My nose grazed her cheek, and I took in a whiff of her pear scent. Jesus, she smells so goddamn good. “I’m sorry.”
“You hurt me.” Her voice was so soft.
“I know.”
“You made me hate you.”
I moved my lips to her collarbone and up her neck.
The moan she made was so fucking quiet.
I still heard it.
My mouth was making her feel good. So, I gave her more of it, kissing just to the side of her face and up the back of her ear. And, while I still held her with one hand, I moved the other down her chest. She stopped me when I reached the middle of her tits, her hands holding me still.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
I took her earlobe into my mouth and gently sucked on it.
I missed the taste of her pussy, the way it had felt on my tongue. The sounds she’d made when I flicked across her clit.
Her grip began to loosen.
“Let go, James.”
With her fingers still on mine, I moved my hand until it cupped her tit, my thumb gently brushing across her nipple. When her breathing increased, I rubbed harder, pinching it through the lace of her bra.
“Brett,” she groaned, finally giving me the full sound I wanted to hear.
I turned her around and backed her up until the table hit her ass. Then, I reached around at the pile of notepads and pens resting on it, and I swiped them all to the floor. With both hands, I quickly unbuttoned, unzipped, and pulled down her jeans and panties until I had enough access to her pussy, and then I turned her once more, so she faced the table.
My hand froze as it touched my zipper. “I don’t have a condom.”
“It’s okay.” She then added, “I’m on something, and I’m clean; don’t worry.”
I turned her face toward mine, and the look in her eyes told me I could trust her. So, I released her cheek, and while I worked on pulling my cock out, I ran a finger up and down her cunt, making sure she was wet enough.
She was fucking dripping.
I wondered what had turned her on this much—if it was me telling her that I wanted to spank her or my apology or just the way I touched her.
With my dick now sticking out the hole of my boxer briefs and through my open zipper, I made her bend at the waist, pushing her upper body onto the table and holding her there. “James,” I groaned as I slid in my crown. I hissed at the warmth that swallowed me, at the wetness that soaked me.
She felt unbelievable.
And she felt even tighter than the last time I’d been inside her.
I kept it slow for a few thrusts, waiting for her pussy to relax and get used to me again. Once I heard a deeper moan come through her lips, I knew she was starting to feel really good, and I held nothing back.
She could take it.
Every inch.
I kicked her legs further apart, continued to hold her flat, and rocked my hips to give her my full stroke. Pushing in harder, I arched my back, so I would hit the spot she liked.
The one that made her scream.
And, as she started to, I leaned over her back and said, “There are people out there who can hear us. Keep it down.”
She whimpered, her arms extending over her head, her nails trying to dig into the wood. “Oh my God,” she said. “I’m going to come.”
I could tell.
She was tightening around me. Pulsing. She even got a little wetter.
I put my hand on her pussy, holding her clit between two fingers, squeezing it with just enough tension, brushing the edge of it with my thumb.
“Ahhh,” she breathed.
I knew every sound she made.
So, I knew she was holding herself back from shouting. I knew there was an orgasm ripping through her body. And I knew every wave she felt because she clenched me during each one.
I took the pressure off her back and grasped her hip, giving her more speed and power, fucking her as hard as I could.
“Brett,” she cried out. “Don’t stop.”
I didn’t need an order to stay buried in her pussy. It was the only place I wanted to be right now.
I reared back and sank in while grounding the pads of my fingers on her clit.
I could feel her getting ready to come again.
But so was I.
I shortened my strokes, rotating my hips, working the tingling sensation through my balls.
“Brett,” she said again, her voice so raspy and sexy.
“Come right now,” I demanded.
The last time I had been inside her, I’d had a condom on, the tight latex restricting the feeling. But here, I was uncovered, with the wetness of her pussy soaking me, the tightness milking the cum out of me.
One shot.
Then, a second.
“Fuuuck,” I roared, trying to keep my voice down.
When I was empty, I slid my cock out and tucked it into my suit pants, zipping back up. I then reached for her jeans and pulled them up her legs until they cupped her ass.
She’d straightened off the table, but she still wasn’t facing me.
She said nothing.
Neither did I.
My body just pressed against hers, feeling every breath, every exhale.
“Your cum just dripped out of me,” she finally said.
I moaned as I thought about how fucking hot that would look. How I wanted to see my cum leaking out of her and onto a bed where I could watch the stain grow.
I lifted her hair off her neck and inhaled her skin as the scent was now mixed with mine.
“I don’t have another pair of panties with me.”
I moved to the other side of her throat, knowing the seconds we had together were li
mited. “I don’t want you to change them. I want my cum dried on your pussy until you shower again.”
After I said that, I knew I’d made another goddamn mistake. I never should have put my hands anywhere near her. Not when I wanted to work for her. Not when I knew she needed my expertise far more than she needed my cock.
“I’ve never done that with a client.”
“Technically, I’m not one.”
I couldn’t say this into her back, so I quickly turned her around and held her. “Listen to me, you need my help, and I want to give it to you.”
“Brett—”
I squeezed her hips, so she knew I wasn’t playing. “I can make this better, James. My whole team can. We’ll do everything it takes to get your career back. But I can’t be fucking you at the same time.”
Her eyes searched mine. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, this can’t happen again.”
“You’re making me choose between you and professional you?”
I shook my head. “I’m telling you to sign with me.”
Her eyes shifted between mine, the reality of my words finally starting to hit her.
“You want your career more than anything in this world,” I said. “I’m going to get it back for you.”
“But—”
I held her harder. “Trust me. I know what’s best for you.”
This was the last fucking thing I wanted, but I couldn’t sleep with a client, not one who needed me this badly. She was going to have a few tough months ahead of her. Rumors of us dating wouldn’t help her career. We had to kill the sex talk, not trigger more of it.
“What about what I want?” she asked.
“You’re going to tell me what you want when I bring Tim and my partners back in and we finish this meeting.”
It was a risk. James could out us in front of my whole team. But it was one I was willing to take.
“You’re kidding,” she said.
“That’s why you’re here, James. Don’t let what just happened get in the way of what’s important. Let me get back what you’ve lost and let me destroy Calvin Parker.”
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