Power Players Box Set- The Complete Series

by Cassia Leo

  “You get it. You’re the one who wants to get married.”

  I shook my head as I watched them argue and thought about how Milo would never know I had once feared he might be Lucas’s father. He’d never know about the painful days we’d spent waiting for the results of the microarray paternity test that confirmed Luke and I had created a life together. And he would never know I lost our bet and still owed him a thousand dollars.

  I turned to Luke, and he was smiling at me the way he smiled when he was about to reveal he’d just bought me something extravagantly expensive.

  “What?”

  He grabbed my hand and planted a soft kiss on my knuckles. “Come with me, Mrs. Maxwell. I want to show you your wedding gift.”

  “It better not be a new Honda with a gold-plated grille.”

  I had insisted on keeping my perfectly good Honda after Luke took it to the shop to get it spiffed up. He kept threatening to put a gold-plated grille and spinner wheels on it.

  “No, I’m saving that one for a very special occasion,” he replied as he pulled me past a bunch of guests who were now in full mingle-mode.

  We hadn’t set up any chairs on deck. It was too small. We figured everyone could stand as long as we kept the ceremony short and sweet. Some guests congratulated and kissed us as we passed. Some tried to discuss their wedding gifts with us. We finally made it to the gangway, and I gathered the skirt of my dress in my arms as Luke helped me down to the dock.

  “Stay right there,” he said as he climbed back up the gangway and onto the deck.

  He moved toward the stern, got down on his knees, and reached under the railing. His hand slid over the port side of the boat, and I realized there was a piece of white tape or plastic covering the name Charlotte. He peeled it off and my eyes instantly welled up.

  The new name written along the side of the boat was PFC Ryan Kingston.

  Luke met me on the dock again and I couldn’t take my eyes off the letters.

  “What do you think?” he asked, and I could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

  The lump in my throat was too painful to speak over, so I didn’t. I turned to him and rested my forehead against his chin as I wept.

  He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “I know his birthday’s next month. I figured the three of us could go sailing and celebrate.”

  I sucked in a deep, stuttered breath and looked into his eyes. “I’d love that.”

  He kissed the tip of my nose and I clasped my hand around the back of his neck to pull him in for a real kiss. Our lips moved slowly and tenderly in unison, our mouths sealing the promise we had just made to each other. I whimpered as a gush of happiness rose inside me and more tears streamed down my cheeks and over our lips.

  He pulled back a little and smiled as he kissed each of my eyelids. “Your tears are mine now.”

  I knew then that not only had I found a man who loved me at my worst, I had found a man who had saved me from my worst. I might never know if Ryan had found peace on the way down, but I had finally made peace with his death. Because it was Ryan who brought Luke and I together.

  Hunting Luke

  A Short Story

  Chapter 1

  When you were married to a billionaire, you came to dread special occasions that required the giving of gifts. My first Christmas with Luke, before we were married, I was six months pregnant, so I was given a pass on doing anything too extravagant or adventurous. I was eight months pregnant and on bedrest for our first Valentine’s Day, so I spent the day being pampered at home. But last Christmas, our first as a married couple, was a nightmare. What do you get a billionaire for Christmas?

  I didn’t get Luke anything last Christmas. I lugged Lucas, Jr., and the new bodyguard Luke insisted I take with me everywhere, around to every shopping center in Seattle. Nothing seemed good enough or original enough for Luke. Every merchant I spoke to gave me the same tired suggestions: a watch engraved with something meaningful, tickets to see his favorite sports team, a bottle of his favorite expensive bourbon. It was all so clichéd. And between Lucas screaming in one ear and photographers screaming in my other ear, shopping for Luke quickly became a nightmare.

  This Valentine’s Day would be different. I wasn’t pregnant. Lucas would be spending three days at my mother’s house—our first time away from him in the ten months since he was born. Most importantly, my gift required no shopping.

  I unbuckled Lucas’s car seat and heaved it out of the backseat of my Honda without waking him. Lucas liked riding in my Honda better than any of Luke’s luxury cars. Luke said this was a sign that Lucas would be as crazy as me.

  I pulled open the screen door then opened the front door of my parents’ house.

  “Honey, is that you?” my mother yelled from the kitchen, and Lucas didn’t even stir.

  She came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel as she raced across the living room. Her eyes widened as she glimpsed Lucas sleeping in his car seat.

  “Oh, he’s asleep,” she whispered as she kissed my cheek. “I wanted to hold him.”

  “Trust me. You should take advantage of this bit of peace while it lasts,” I whispered. “He’s been very cranky the past two days.” I placed the diaper bag on the floor and squatted down to rummage through it. “His doctor prescribed this probiotic. You put ten CCs in his morning and nightly bottle. Just two times a day. Please don’t forget.”

  She nodded as I handed her the bottle. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Your father and I did this twice.”

  “Yeah, like, twenty-four years ago. Please call me if you have any questions or if he gets a fever. Check his temperature at least twice a day, please. I have a digital ear thermometer in here,” I said, tapping the diaper bag with my foot.

  “Honey, he’s going to be fine.”

  “Of course, he’s going to be fine,” my father said as he stalked across the kitchen floor into the living room.

  I held my index finger up to my mouth and nodded toward Lucas. “He’s sleeping.”

  My father kissed my cheekbone then gazed down at his grandson. “He’ll be fine. I’m going to teach him how to throw a football tomorrow.”

  My stomach twisted with guilt as I thought of walking out the front door and driving away without Lucas. He wasn’t just my precious little boy; he was my companion. We did everything together for the past ten months. I needed him as much as he needed me.

  I gave Lucas one more kiss on his fuzzy head before my father herded me toward the front door. “Go on. It’s almost my bedtime,” he said.

  I stepped outside and took one last glance at Lucas before I descended the porch steps. “Bye, Dad.”

  “Bye, pumpkin.”

  When I walked into the bedroom, I heard the shower running. Luke must have just gotten home from the office. I really wanted him to go with me to drop off Lucas, but he was working on a new project and had been working long hours for the past five weeks. Sometimes he didn’t make it home until almost midnight. It was definitely taking a toll on us.

  I pulled off my damp trench coat and laid it across the bench near the window then went into the bathroom. The room was so steamy I could hardly see. Luke loved his showers extra hot, just like him. I closed the door behind me and opened the shower door.

  Luke was rinsing the soap off his face, so he didn’t see me right away. I gazed at him as the water slid over his strong arms and rock hard chest. I stopped when I laid eyes on his beautiful cock.

  “Getting any ideas?” he said, and my eyes shot up to his smiling face. “Get in, baby.”

  I undressed quickly and stepped into the shower. “It’s almost ten o’clock at night,” I said as I leaned my head back to wet my hair.

  Luke squirted a few pumps of body wash into his palm and worked up a lather. He placed his soapy hands on each side of my neck and rubbed his way down to my shoulders then back up to my neck. He took my face in his hands and kissed me. His lips tasted so clean, and as his
tongue slid into my mouth, his erection slid up my abdomen.

  His hands slid down to wrap around my waist and pull me closer as he kissed my throat. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Josh found a bad line of code.”

  I clutched his hair as his hand massaged my breast, creating a pulsating need in my center. “Is it too much to ask that you come home in time to have dinner with us?”

  His hand slid down my belly and deep into my folds. He sunk two fingers inside me and I moaned as he thrust in and out of me. He pulled out and caressed my clit softly as his mouth crushed mine again. He breathed heavily as he stroked me with one hand and kept his other arm wrapped firmly around my waist.

  “No, it’s not too much to ask,” he muttered into my mouth.

  “Oh, God!” I cried as my knees began to buckle from the intense waves of pleasure crashing through me. “You’ll do it?”

  I leaned my head back, and he watched as I writhed with every flick of his finger. When I couldn’t take anymore, he picked me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist as he pinned me against the shower wall. His cock slid into me and I whimpered as he hit my core.

  “Oh, Brina,” he growled as he sunk in and out of me. “You know I’ll do anything for you, baby.”

  “Harder.”

  He pounded into me, stretching me and grinding against my clit.

  “Harder!” I cried.

  “Oh, fuck,” he breathed as he kissed me deeply.

  His hands gripped my ass firmly and I tightened myself around his cock as he hammered me against the wall. He raked his teeth over my bottom lip as he slid out of me then thrust his tongue into my mouth as he slid in.

  I threw my head back as I began to tremble with the beginnings of another orgasm. “Oh, Luke. Don’t stop.”

  “Baby, I’m gonna come.”

  “Not yet.”

  He slowed his pace and pressed me hard against the shower wall so he could slide one finger over my clit.

  “Oh, yes!”

  “You like that?”

  “Oh, my God!” I moaned as I nodded. “Yes, yes.”

  He pulled his fingers away and grinded against me a few more times before we exploded together. I could feel him shaking from carrying me, but he made no move to put me down.

  “I want to live inside you,” he said.

  He kissed me tenderly as he softened and slid out of me. He let me down on the shower floor gently then he slid down onto one knee and began to lift my leg.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I want to taste you.”

  Three orgasms in one night. If this was what I had to look forward to for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I might have to ask my parents to babysit more often.

  Chapter 2

  “Okay, this is the first clue. Don’t open it until I leave. Understand?”

  Luke handed me a red envelope sealed with a gold heart-shaped sticker. He kissed my cheek then hopped into his car and drove out of the gate. When the gate closed behind him, I peeled off the gold sticker and pulled out a photograph. It was a picture of Luke and me on his boat on our wedding day. He said each picture was a clue to a location. Each location had a gift waiting for me. I was up for a little scavenger hunt if it meant I got to find Luke when it was all over.

  When I pulled into the parking lot at the marina, I wasn’t surprised to find my bodyguard, Perry, standing next to his car waiting for me. I pulled into the parking spot next to him, and he automatically came around to the driver’s side to open my door.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Maxwell,” he said as he helped me out of the car.

  I couldn’t convince the guy to call me Brina. I finally figured out it was because Luke told him he wasn’t allowed to call me by my first name. He didn’t want Perry to get too friendly with me. Luke didn’t fly into fits of rage or argue with me much, but he could be terribly possessive at times. One look at Perry Thompson and one could understand why Luke would hesitate to allow me to get too personal with him.

  He was six-foot-two inches of pure muscle with brown skin that gleamed in the sunlight—not that there was any today. February in Seattle was pretty bleak. It hadn’t started raining yet, but it would before the day was out.

  Perry led me to Luke’s boat and helped me up the gangway, all the while glancing around to remain vigilant of photographers. The paparazzi didn’t bother us much while we were dating because Luke was an expert at evading them, but after we married, everything changed. The latest story is that I’m pregnant again and our marriage is on the rocks. I laugh it off, but Luke doesn’t find it very funny. When a photographer got a picture of me sunbathing topless on the deck of Luke’s sailboat—in the middle of the ocean!—Luke hired Perry the next day.

  I wandered around the deck, trying to imagine where Luke would hide a clue, then it hit me. I descended the steps into the cabin and Luke was standing next to the bed with his hands behind his back and wearing a cunning smile.

  “The hunt is over already?” I asked as I walked toward him.

  He dropped his hands from behind his back and held out another red envelope. “Not yet. This is a clue for where to find your gift on the boat, but I have another gift I want to give you before you begin your search.”

  He clasped his hand around my nape and exposed my neck to him. He kissed my neck then worked his way down to the valley between my breasts.

  “I’m worried about Lucas,” I said. “My mom hasn’t called.”

  “He’s fine.” He pulled my dress up and I raised my arms so he could pull it off. “You won’t need this today,” he whispered before he took my nipple in his mouth.

  He sucked gently, stoking the fire between my legs, then he laid me down on the bed and I watched in the mirror above us as he slipped my panties off. I smiled as he slid down and his hot lips covered my clit. I looked down as he pulled his head back and looked up into the mirror above us. He moved his head to the side and smirked as he caught a glimpse of me in the mirror.

  “Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said before he buried his face in me again.

  His tongue swirled around my clit, massaging me and flicking me in a slow, delicious rhythm. I let out a deep sigh as my body relaxed. He thrust his tongue inside me a few times and I gasped as he licked his way back up to my swollen nub.

  “Keep going,” I begged.

  He sucked me gently then thrust two fingers inside as he lightly tickled my clit, bringing me down hard into a shattering orgasm. He kept his mouth on me and his fingers inside me until I begged him to stop.

  He chuckled as he slid over me and kissed me hard. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Mrs. Maxwell.” He stood from the bed then picked up the red envelope I dropped on the floor. “I’ll see you at the final stop. It shouldn’t take you long to get there.”

  I opened the red envelope and found a picture of the inside of a drawer with a key lying inside. I recognized it as the inside of the drawer in the small galley kitchen on the boat. I didn’t bother getting dressed as I plodded into the kitchen and began opening drawers. The third one I opened had the key.

  It was a simple gold key. It could be used for anything: a house, an office…a safe. That was it. Luke had a safe on the boat. I made my way back past the bed and toward the seating area. I lifted one of the cushioned seats and stuck the key in the safe. When I heaved open the door, I found a plain white box tied with a red satin ribbon.

  I pulled the box out, locked the safe, and replaced the cushion. When I opened the box, I found a beautiful, cream, knee-length organza dress with a red leather belt. The belt did not go with the strappy silver wedges I’d worn with the black dress Luke just pulled off me, but if this is what he wanted me to wear, I could sacrifice a bit of fashion sense just for today—especially after the glorious orgasm he just gave me.

  I changed quickly then opened another red envelope I’d found tucked in the folds of the dress. This one contained a picture of Greene’s Coffee and Tea: the location of our first date.

  Cha
pter 3

  When Perry pulled into the parking lot at Greene’s, I told him to wait in the car. I would only be a minute.

  I entered the café and instantly felt out of place in my fancy dress. After a few seconds where everyone ogled me, they issued their standard greetings. At least everyone here still called me Brina. Nine months married to Luke, and I still hadn’t gotten used to being Mrs. Maxwell, so, of course, Luke found every opportunity to call me by my married name.

  “Hi, Brina,” Lany called out to me from behind the café counter.

  She was actually smiling and waving a red envelope over her head. Lany got over her jealousy of my relationship with Luke once we got married and she realized there was absolutely no chance, not in a million years, that she would ever get her hands on him.

  I guess I could be a bit possessive of Luke as well.

  “Hi, Lany,” I said as I reached the counter and took the envelope from her hand. “Did he give you any clues as to where I’m going next?”

  She shook her finger at me. “Nuh-uh. I’m not telling, but I’ll give you a hint: I’m super jealous.”

  “That’s not a hint; that’s your default state.”

  She smiled as she shoved my shoulder a bit harder than a friendly shove should be. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered as I turned and waved at everyone as I exited the café.

  I opened the envelope in the car and pulled out a photo of Luke and me lying in our bed at home. It was a picture he’d taken of us with his phone the morning after our wedding, when we woke for the first time as husband and wife. Just seeing the picture gave me butterflies.

  Perry reached into the back of his Mercedes and pulled another white box tied with more red ribbon from the backseat. “This is for you.”

  I opened the box and inside rested a gorgeous pair of peep-toe pumps I’d seen in a magazine the other day while Luke and I were lying in bed reading. I swooned over them, and he made fun of me for being a typical girl. He remembered. And they went perfect with this dress and the belt. He had to have had some help picking out this dress.