by Ivy Nelson
“What do you say we go back to my hotel for a nap before work?” he asked when he pulled away.
Isabelle grinned. “As long as my boss won’t fire me for being late, I think a nap sounds lovely.”
He chuckled and leaned forward to tell the driver to divert to the Glenview.
“I think your boss will be pleased if you’re late, Miss Alvarado. In fact, I think he insists.”
She smiled and snuggled close. “Good. And maybe while we’re there you can tell me about Helen Peters.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Isabelle, come in here, please.”
She smiled at the sound of Garrett’s voice through the intercom as she pushed back from her desk. They’d spent the morning in bed at his hotel where he’d made love to her. He’d also had a doctor come to their suite to test them both because he was tired of fucking her with a condom. After that the morning had turned somber again as he told her about Helen Peters tragic car accident which was sounding less and less like an accident all the time.
Pushing the door open, she flashed him a smile. “I was just getting ready to leave. What can I help you with?”
His gaze was hungry, and she half expected him to tell her he was going to take her there in the office. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and said, “I have to go back to Pennsylvania for most of the week. Could you come with me?”
“When would we leave?”
“Tonight, at seven. We would be back on Thursday night.”
She sighed. “I don’t have the kind of life where I can just drop everything and hop on a plane, Garrett.”
He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I just really want you with me.”
She came further into his office. “I would come with you if I could, I promise. But with Uncle Henry still on the mend and Daddy’s work schedule, I need to be here for the girls.”
“OK, Doll. I can accept that. You can take off if you need to.”
She hated disappointing him that way.
His phone rang and he held up a hand while he answered it.
“Thank you, Jeff. Send him up, please.” Lowering the phone, he looked at her and said, Jax is here. I’ll see you at my hotel for dinner.
She blushed. Dinner, he’d already told her, would involve her mouth wrapped around his cock.
“Yes, Sir. I’ll be there. Are you sure you don’t need me to stick around while Jax is here?”
He shook his head. “Go home, Isabelle. That was our agreement if you’re going to insist on working two jobs.”
She sighed. “Yes, Sir.”
She passed Jax as she left the office and gave him a friendly wave before she slid into the backseat of an SUV for Jeff to take her home.
When she unlocked the front door, Sarah was at the kitchen table doing homework, so she slipped upstairs instead of interrupting her. A nap before meeting Garrett sounded nice. As she came to the top of the stairs, Catarina opened her door and motioned for Isabelle to come into her room.
“What’s up, Cat?” she asked, stifling a yawn.
“What’s Solitaire?”
Isabelle felt her gut twist. How did she know about Solitaire?
“Like the card game?” she asked, hoping she sounded innocent and confused enough.
Catarina shook her head and pointed at her laptop screen. “No. Someone from school sent me a link to a blog with those pictures of you kissing Mr. Oliver and it mentioned a club called Solitaire.”
Isabelle closed her eyes.
“I can’t talk about that right now, Cat. I promise it’s nothing bad.”
Her niece frowned. “Grandpa won’t be happy if he sees it.”
Isabelle laughed. “Believe me, I know. Can you send me the link to the blog?”
Catarina sat down at her computer and emailed her the link.
“Thanks, Cat. Do you need anything? I have to talk to someone about this?”
Catarina shook her head. “I’m good, Aunt Izzy. I think Sarah needs a note signed. It’s on the kitchen counter.”
Isabelle kissed her niece on the cheek and hurried to her room to call Garrett.
“I thought I told you to take a nap,” he chided instead of saying hello.
“I was going to, but my niece ambushed me as I was coming up the stairs. I’m sending you a link. She asked me what Solitaire is and showed me a blog post speculating about who I am and whether or not you and I are members.”
“God fucking damn it,” Garrett swore. “Send it to me, please. I need to call Eli.”
He ended the call without waiting for her to acknowledge the command and she scowled at her phone.
Twenty minutes later, her phone rang. It was Garrett.
“When can you be ready to go to my hotel?”
“I told Jeff I would be ready at four forty-five.”
“That’s not what I asked, Isabelle. I asked how soon you can be ready.”
She cleared her throat. “I know you’re dealing with a lot right now, but please don’t hang up on me or snap at me if I don’t deserve it, Sir.” She winced, waiting for him to scold her.
Instead, he laughed, a low chuckle that sent a little chill down her spine. “I do love your boldness, Doll. You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. I can be ready in ten minutes.”
“Good. I’ll be along to pick you up shortly. Eli is calling an emergency board meeting and you need to sit in on it.”
“Why the emergency? It’s just a reporter speculating, isn’t it?”
“We honestly don’t know, Doll. But we’re talking about the privacy and safety of hundreds of members, many of whom have a lot to lose if they get outed. We have to be careful and stay on top of this.”
“I’m heading back downstairs to wait on you, now.”
“Good girl. I’m sorry your niece is the one who alerted you to this. What did you tell her?”
“I just said I couldn’t talk about it.”
“I’m in your driveway.”
As she passed through the living room, her father stopped her.
“You seem rushed. Is everything OK?”
“I’m fine. Mr. Oliver just needs me back at work.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Come now, Isabelle. You don’t have to pretend around me. I’m sure you don’t call him Mr. Oliver.”
She stifled a smirk as she wondered what her father would say if she told him he preferred Sir.
“I have to go, Daddy. I love you. I’m working at the hotel tonight too. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She kissed his cheek and stepped outside where Garrett leaned against the car with his phone to his ear.
He looked up and gave her a half smile when she approached.
“I have to go. I’ll be at my hotel in twenty minutes. We can start the meeting as soon as I’m settled.”
He tucked his phone into his pocket and offered her his hand. “I missed you,” he said as he opened the passenger door with his free hand.
She giggled and looked at her phone. “I barely left an hour ago.”
His phone rang before he could respond, and he leaned away from her to dig it out of his pocket. “I just picked her up. I’ll be online shortly. How many did you manage to contact?”
There was a pause as he listened to whoever was on the other line. “Great. Samuel is working out of the country again, so he’ll be hard to reach. Lance, Russell, and Austin are the ones I really want to talk to most anyway. Jax has some information for us as well.”
He ended the call and draped an arm around Isabelle’s shoulders. “This meeting might get a little intense but none of us are angry at you, OK?”
She nodded. “I understand. You all have large… personalities. I’m sure they clash from time to time.”
He chuckled at her observation and dropped a kiss on the top of her head as they rode to the Glenview together.
Inside, Garrett logged in to the video conferencing software the board used and pulled two dining table chair
s close together. They waited as others logged on. Eli’s face popped on screen first and she gave him a wave.
“Afternoon…” she hesitated, unsure of what to call him.
He laughed. “Elijah is fine, Isabelle. It’s after ten here in London so I’m almost ready for bed.”
She giggled. “OK then. Sorry I’m keeping you up late, Elijah.”
Under the table, Garrett laid a hand on her thigh and gave her a gentle squeeze.
Hunter, Jax, and Lance all popped up on the screen next, but Lance was on the phone and had his audio muted.
Hunter and Jax began childishly attempting to make him laugh by making faces. Lance flipped them the bird and turned his back to the camera.
By the time everyone had logged in, Lance was off the phone and ready to begin.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Jax said before they got started. His face vanished from the screen.
Garrett sent them the link Isabelle’s niece had given her and Isabelle watched as Lance turned his attention offscreen and began typing.
“How do we want to address this?” Eli asked. “It’s the second time one of our members has been outed in the media and we need to put a stop to it, or members won’t be able to trust us with their personal information.”
Hunter leaned closer to his camera. “When Austin was outed, I thought the press was speculating because of her association with me and Patrick. Lance never found evidence of hacking. Isabelle, I have to ask, how much do you talk about Solitaire with friends?”
She shook her head. “None at all. I go to work, I go home, I go to Solitaire on the weekends. I have no one to talk about it with and even if I did, I wouldn’t. Not unless I knew they were in the lifestyle and thinking of becoming a member. I’ve lost touch with most of my local lifestyle friends, though.”
He nodded. “I wasn’t accusing you, little one. Just trying to get all the facts.”
Russell spoke next. “Garrett, is it possible this is a smear job to get you ousted from the president’s economic advisory panel? I know you’ve ruffled feathers in Washington in the past.”
Garrett shrugged. “It’s possible. I’m waiting on Jax to get back to me on a slightly more personal connection though. I’m perplexed by how someone would have found out I’m part of Solitaire. I’m incredibly careful not to discuss my connection. Aside from Isabelle these past few weeks, I don’t socialize with submissives outside the club and I only talk business with a few of you on a regular basis and I know all of you are discreet.”
“So, what’s this more personal lead you’re running down?” Austin asked.
“Let’s wait for Jax to sign back on,” Garrett said.
Eli scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “Lance, I need to ask you to put your objective hat on for a minute. Is it possible you’re too close to your system? You built Solitaire’s security yourself. How would you feel about bringing in an outside cyber security expert to audit the system?”
Lance scowled. “Sure, if you’re fine settling for the second best. I can handle this, Eli.”
Russell coughed. “I think now is probably not the time to fight over this. We need to give assurances to Isabelle and all our other members that we’re working on this. I’m willing to offer physical security details to anyone outed, not just Isabelle if it’s needed.”
She smiled at him. His kind demeanor belied the fact that he was an intense sadist inside the walls of Solitaire.
“I’m pretty sure Garrett has my security taken care of, but I appreciate it.”
Garrett smirked and Isabelle turned to him. “What’s that look for?”
He chuckled. “Russell’s company is who I employ for all my private security, Doll.”
She giggled. “Of course it is. Well, thank you for keeping me safe,” she said, winking at the camera.
Garrett’s phone buzzed and he glanced down at his screen. “Looks like Jax is about to get signed on.”
When Jax popped up on the screen, everyone murmured greetings.
“What do you have, Jax?” Garrett asked.
“Evening, all,” he said. “I’m assuming you’re OK with me spilling everything to everyone?”
Garrett nodded. “Go ahead.”
“OK. First, we’re digging through a stack of phone records a mile high from Darren Gunn, trying to pinpoint who he’s working with. That’s just based on the information you gave me a little bit ago. We haven’t gotten far, but I do see a few phone calls to Carmen Alvarado weeks after she was terminated. Seems odd to me that he would contact someone who had supposedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.”
Isabelle sucked in a breath. That didn’t make sense. Why would Carmen communicate with the person who fired her?
“Second, is Maddox Oliver.”
Isabelle turned and stared at Garrett. “Your brother?” she murmured.
He nodded and turned to the others on screen. “The story is long and not one I really want to rehash but let’s just say we’ve never gotten along. A decade or so ago some things exacerbated the strain on our already tenuous relationship. Ultimately, I wouldn’t put anything past him, but he’s also stayed out of the public eye for the last several years so I’m confused as to why he would be coming after me now.”
“I’ll do some digging on my end,” Lance said. “See if I can connect your brother to either the phone call to Isabelle or the email we got. Not to mention the blog post.”
“What makes you think this brother is involved?” Hunter asked.
Garrett ran a hand through his hair. “That’s a tricky thing and it’s just a hunch for now. One, we found some evidence that he is connected to a company that swiped a contract out from under me. A contract I’ve had since I bought the Colorado facility a couple of years ago. Second, he’s started using the Oliver name again. Part of our falling out included him changing his name and disappearing, but he always vowed to get even. I’ll know more when Jax and Lance finish their digging.”
“I trust Jax and Lance to handle the investigation side of things,” Eli said. “What we have to do now is come up with a response from Solitaire. Holly will wind up being the expert on this, but she’s swamped with meetings in California, so I’ll fill her in later.”
The group spent the next twenty minutes bandying about ideas for a statement to release to members, and in the end, Eli had an extensive list of ideas to take to his wife.
Garrett asked Isabelle to wait for him in the other room while he talked privately with Jax after the meeting ended.
She really just wanted all of this to be over. Her dinner hour with Garrett was supposed to be a sexy fun goodbye before he left town. Instead, it had turned into a stressful meeting about whether or not she was going to be outed as a member of a BDSM club.
While he was finishing his conversation, Isabelle did her best to bring herself back to a calm state with some deep breathing. There was no reason they couldn’t salvage their goodbye.
• • •
When Garrett finished his conversation with Jax, he went looking for Isabelle in the bedroom. She was waiting for him and took him by surprise by dropping to her knees to unbuckle his belt.
“I was feeling bad about not being able to join you in Pennsylvania,” she said, her voice breathy. “I thought I could make it up to you.”
“You haven’t disappointed me at all, Isabelle.” He sucked in a breath as she worked his pants and underwear down his hips enough to free his cock.
“That said,” he continued, tangling his fingers in her hair. “I do like the sounds of you making it up to me.”
He let himself lean against the wall while she raised up on her knees enough to wrap her lips around the swollen tip of his erection, just barely pulling it into her mouth. She stared up at him as her lips traveled further along his shaft.
Slowly, she eased her way down until he felt himself touch the back of her throat. He fisted her hair in his hand as she sucked him deeper, opening her throat for him. Fuck, s
he was good at this.
She pulled back, still keeping him between her lips, then plunged forward again. After several long slow pulls in and out, she increased her speed and found a rhythm that had him gripping her hair even tighter and bracing his arm against the small table he stood next to.
“Christ, Isabelle,” he muttered as she sucked him even further down her throat.
Her tongue swirled at the sensitive spot near the tip of his cock every time she pulled him out of her throat. It would be his undoing.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he bit out. “I’m about to lose it, Doll.”
Her eyes told him she was eager for him to explode across her tongue, so he gripped her hair with both hands and took control of the blowjob until he reached his peak.
“Fuck,” he bit out as the orgasm rocked him. She continued to gently suck as she swallowed his seed. Finally, she backed away and let his cock fall from her mouth with a quiet pop.
She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and let out a giggle. “I didn’t know I could still do that.”
Garrett tilted his head toward the ceiling and laughed.
He helped her up and pushed her toward the bed, intent on returning the favor, but she stopped him.
“Actually, Sir. I really am hungry. I was hoping we could have dinner before you have to leave, and I have to go to work.”
He chuckled. “Come on then, Doll. I’ll just have to take you to bed when I get back to town on Thursday.”
When they made their way to the downstairs restaurant, she gripped his hand. Could it be that his Isabelle was going to miss him while he was away? They didn’t talk about his brother or being outed during their meal. It was as if they both sensed that they just need to be together in the moment.
After dinner, they stood outside his car wrapped in each other’s arms.
“I’ll call you when I have time and we’ll check in while you’re at the office too. I’m sure there will be plenty I need you to handle for me. I expect you to take care of yourself while I’m gone. Is that clear? That includes listening to the security team.”
She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
Garrett kissed her gently and pulled away. He hated how hard it was to leave.
