Notorious (NeXt Book 1)

by K. M. Scott

  His left hand presses on my thigh, forcing me open for him, and I arch my back, whimpering with every time he drags his tongue over my clit. Lost in my own delirium, I feel his finger pass over my lips, and a second later when he sinks his teeth ever so slightly into the tender skin between my legs, I suck his fingertip into my mouth. He tastes sweet, like the peach cupcake I saved just for him.

  When his other hand leaves my leg, I feel relief for the briefest of moments, but then my need and desire come crashing through me with one finger slid inside me. I suck his forefinger harder, desperate for something to ground me as my body begins to feel like I’m flying with every flick of his tongue and every stab into my wet and willing body.

  Moaning against my skin, he adds a second finger and begins to fuck me as he concentrates his mouth on my clit. I arch my back, craving every part of his touch on me to relieve this need, and he pistons his fingers into me faster as he inches me closer and closer to release.

  My hips ache my legs are open so wide, but the pain mixes with the pure pleasure of his mouth on me and his fingers fucking me that I don’t care how much it hurts. So close, I rock my hips to get to that sweet point, wanting the release of all that’s been pent up inside me.

  With one last flick of his tongue, I see fireworks behind my eyes and suck hard on his finger as I come with abandon like I’ve never done before. I cry out in pure ecstasy, and Cade rides each wave of my orgasm, his mouth and tongue lapping against me and creating new aftershocks one after another.

  Finally, I wriggle out from under his hold when I can’t take it anymore. “I think you’re going to kill me if you keep going.”

  He lifts his head and licks his lips. With one of his wicked smiles, he sighs and says, “Just as sweet as I thought. Like heaven.”

  “Did you get some kind of specialized training or something in that? I think you might be a master at it,” I say and feel my cheeks heat up.

  Cade instantly notices and points up at me. “I love that you’re turning red right now. I was just between your legs eating your pussy, but asking me that question makes you blush.”

  I cover my face, embarrassed at my body’s need to do that. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

  He climbs up onto the bed next to me and pries my hands away so I can’t avoid seeing him. “I can’t make things like you do. I’m afraid I’m going to have to live with just being a sex god.”

  “Oh, so now you’re a sex god? Such an ego, Cade March. Pretty cocky.”

  With a wink, he says, “It’s not cocky if it’s true. Then it’s just facts. Just wait until next time. You’ll see.”

  Disappointment tears through me. We’re not doing anything more?

  “Next time? Is this time over?”

  He sighs and nods. “Yep. That phone call put a definite end time to this date, but I promise the next one will go as long as you want.”

  I try to imagine that and smile. “As long as I want?”

  With one of those wicked smiles, he nods. “I promise. I’ll go as long as you want me to.”

  When I first met Cade, I had a sense he was one of those men I should be afraid of. I was wrong in one sense, but in another very real way, I should be afraid. Any man this charming and this good with his tongue to make you want more of him that his leaving early disappoints you is a very dangerous man.

  And if I’m not careful, I’m going to fall madly in love with him, no matter how much I don’t want to.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cade

  When I walk into Club X three hours late, I’m happy with what happened with Hailey tonight and pissed I had to cut short our night together. Sort of a mixed blessing, except I didn’t get to come and I’m putting the blame on my father for that.

  Blue balls, courtesy of your family. That’s some shit I’m going to need a therapist for, no doubt.

  The place is packed, as usual, and the crowd in front of the main bar downstairs looks like it’s about to crush Cici and Cam. The newest bartenders, from what I gathered from my conversation last month with my father, they don’t seem to have matured well behind the bar in the past few weeks. She looks practically dumbstruck trying to serve the next customer, and he appears to have a single speed.

  Slow.

  Like turtle slow. In a club like this one, that shit doesn’t play. Not for long, anyway.

  I see the legendary Stefan March come out of his office, look around, and set his eagle-eyed gaze on me, and I know he wants to talk. He always wants to talk. You’d think my interest in getting behind the bar to help his newbies would overrule his need to lecture me about being late, but I can tell by the disgruntled look on his face as he weaves through the crowd that he’s in a talking mood.

  Or maybe a yelling mood.

  “Cade, I want to talk to you,” he says when he gets about three feet away from me.

  I point toward his hapless workers and say, “Can we do this after I rescue those two? They’ve got a line three people deep and ten people long wanting drinks. Who’s setting up your shifts here these days? Whoever it is, they need to be retrained or fired.”

  His eyes narrow at my attack on his scheduler, who I know is him. It’s always him. He likes being a hands-on kind of owner, and while that’s not a bad thing, he’s slipping if he thinks these two are up to the job of the main bar.

  “Maya is on her break. They’ll be fine once she gets back,” he says defensively, and I know I’ve struck a nerve.

  “Then I’ll take over until she comes back from her break. I’ll come to see you in the office then,” I call back as I stride away toward the bar.

  I know he hates that I just basically dismissed him, but what he hates even more is the idea that his bar isn’t being manned properly. I can fix that, at least. Everything else between us tonight will go to hell pretty quickly once I step into his office, but at least I can get his main source of income here straightened out in the meantime.

  As I come around the corner of the bar, I flash a blond in my way a smile and announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, what are we all drinking?”

  They all call out drinks and I laugh that no one got the joke. Okay, I guess it was an inside thing. Cici and Cam look at me like they aren’t sure if I’m there to help or cause a hassle, so I call them in toward me.

  “Cici, take the end of the bar down there. Don’t get flustered. Just do one drink at a time, and do it as fast as you can. Cam, you do the middle third, and I’ll do this end down here. Don’t worry about how many people there are. They all want drinks, so they’ll wait a minute. Just don’t make them wait two. Okay, let’s go!”

  They scurry away to where I’ve told them to go, and I turn to see the pretty blond giving me the eye. “What can I do for you tonight, beautiful?” I ask and get a sexy smile in return.

  “Moscow mule. I’m Kirsten. What’s your name? Superman come to save the day?” she yells over the crowd cheering about something a few feet away.

  I toss her a smile and nod as I begin to pour her drink. “Feel free to call me Superman. Give me a few seconds and I’ll have you taken care of.”

  “Are you the man in charge?” she asks, and I shake my head.

  “Not me. I’m just some off-the-street guy come to do a little bartending. The guy in charge is wearing the black suit and green tie and looks like he doesn’t know what a good time is,” I say, leaning over to place her drink in front of her.

  She slides me a twenty and a piece of paper before flashing me another smile. “Well, Superman, keep the change and give me a call sometime. I’d love to see what kind of other superhero feats you can perform.”

  I could explain to her that I’ve got someone, even though I’m not sure that’s the God’s honest truth about what Hailey and I are doing, but what’s the point? This is a bar, the blonde wants to flirt, and I’m a bartender whose job is to make customers happy. So I smile and give her wink.

  “Time for me to go save more citizens of Metropolis.”

&n
bsp; With that, I make my way to the cash register and give the mighty Stefan March his take and pocket the ten I made with just a smile and a little sweet talk. It’s too bad I hate doing this job. It’s not hard and I could probably haul away half a grand tonight, if my father hadn’t scheduled Maya too. Why does he insist on having me come in if he doesn’t need me?

  Well, he needs me, but that would mean sending poor Cici and Cam home. But my father has other plans for me, I’m sure.

  Twenty minutes later, my third of the bar has more people than the rest of it because my two co-workers took my pep talk and disregarded every word. I’m halfway to what I might have made all night because of them, so I guess I can’t be too disgusted with how bad they are at this job.

  I’m not the one who’s in charge of who works and who gets fired here, but if I was, they’d both be gone.

  “Stefan Junior,” a voice says behind me, and I turn to see Maya back from her break.

  She knows I hate that little swipe she takes at me every time we meet up. One month of working together and she thinks I’m as bad as my father. I’d get rid of her too if this was my place, but not because she’s shitty behind the bar. She isn’t. In fact, she’s been known to be damn good sometimes and the customers love her.

  I’d get rid of her because she insists on calling me that little name.

  “Maya, how great to see you again,” I coo, obviously not happy to see her. “Taking half-hour breaks now? Seems pretty early in the night. Boyfriend couldn’t wait?”

  And that’s my swipe back at her. I know her boyfriend broke up with her last month. My father had to babysit her weepy ass for a week because she couldn’t keep it together. Yours truly got to fill in for her then too and got to have the privilege of seeing how kind the great Stefan March could be to someone who isn’t me.

  Maya’s green eyes open wide at my insult. “Fuck you, Cade! Get out of my way. This is my bar tonight.”

  Taking a fifty from my final customer, I head toward the register and get him his change. When he kindly leaves me a ten for a tip, I pocket that and look over at her.

  “Then act like it so I don’t have to come in here and clean up your fucking mess. You used to be good behind the bar. Maybe you could try to be that again.”

  Before she can clap back with some attempt at a witty retort, I slide around the edge of the bar and head into the crowd. Not two steps toward the stairs, I see my father wave me over toward him as he stands outside his office.

  So much for getting away unscathed.

  By the time I reach him, my stomach’s in a knot and I’m preemptively hating the conversation we’re about to have. He gives me a scowl and heads into the office with me following.

  “I see you and Maya haven’t made up. I thought you two would have been able to get past what happened last summer by now. It’s been nearly a year,” he says as he walks over to his chair behind his desk.

  “Well, she’s the same person she was, and I’m the same person I was, and the problem is still there, so I don’t know why you would think we’d get past anything by now, Dad.”

  He leans back in his chair and takes a deep breath in. After he lets it out so slowly that I’m wondering if he’s counting back from ten before he explodes, he points at the chair in front of his desk.

  “Take a seat, Cade. No need to stand.”

  I prefer to stand because standing is one step closer to walking, which is what I want to do at this moment. After a great time with Hailey and a decent time working the bar, the last thing I want tonight is to sit here in this office and listen to another one of my father’s lectures.

  But I do as he says because it’s easier than fighting him. I know how to pick my battles, and whether or not I bother to sit isn’t one worth anything.

  “You looked good out there. As soon as you got behind the bar, things started working a hundred times better. Those two took your guidance, and the customers love you,” he says with a broad smile.

  I think this is his way of complimenting me. That’s not a bad thing, but I have a sense he might be going for the compliment sandwich thing tonight, so that means what’s coming next won’t be so wonderful.

  “It’s not rocket science, Dad. You smile, you flirt, you pour drinks. People pay you, and if you’ve made them feel good, they give you some money to take home. As for Frick and Frack out there, they might be better at one of the other bars. Maybe the back bar that gets less traffic. Or even better, the second floor bar away from the bathrooms. Maya has no customer skills whatsoever, but people seem to tolerate her. I still don’t know why.”

  He sighs again, this time letting the air out in a rush. “Your mother was always an incredible bartender too, and she never wanted to do that either. I guess you take after her.”

  Well, this might not be horrible after all. Usually when he brings my mother into the conversation, he’s feeling good about something. I definitely want to keep her as the topic, at least for the moment.

  “How is Mom? I haven’t talked to her in over a week. Is she busy at school?”

  My father nods and his expression changes to that one he always wears when he talks about my mother’s work. As much as he has no real idea what she’s working on when it comes to the specifics of her research, he’s proud of her and that shows all over his face.

  “She is. I’ll tell her to call you when she gets a chance. You know how she is when she’s in the middle of her research. I’m sure you’ll hear from her soon, though.”

  The two of us sit there with his desk separating us, two men looking at one another and seeing very similar faces. My father and I look so alike that no one could ever wonder if we’re related. Like him, I have dark hair and brown eyes, different from his brothers and their blue eyes. We take after my grandmother and her side of the family, while Cassian and Kane take after my grandfather’s side.

  All of this wanders through my mind as I sit and wait for him to lower the boom on why he insisted on dragging me in here to talk to me instead of just letting me work like I’m supposed to. I’m assuming I’m going to get the lecture about not being late, but with my father, you never know what he’s going to be unhappy about.

  “So I hear you have a girlfriend,” he finally says, breaking the silence and stunning me at the same time.

  Then again, in this family, nothing should surprise me, including Cassian blabbing like some old gossip to my father about what happened at CK the other night. Or was it Alex? He seems to be full of opinions on my life lately. Maybe he shared some of those with my father.

  “Really? The March family gossip mill running full steam these days?”

  He throws his head back and laughs at my snappy question. “You know how this family is, Cade. I saw your uncle and Alex yesterday and Cassian mentioned to me that you were at the restaurant to see some girl. From what Alex says, she’s a gifted chef. Impressive.”

  Great. So it was both of them. Like father, like son. At least in their case.

  “Is that what you called me in to talk about? Because I’m not sure I’d call her my girlfriend. She’s someone I’m interested in, and yes, she is talented at her job.”

  Even as the words leave my mouth, I know I’m acting far too defensive about Hailey. The gossip grapevine in my family is nothing new. Hell, I take part in it from time to time myself. It’s not really a shock that my uncle or even Alex would mention my interest in Hailey.

  “No, it’s not,” my father says in a much harsher voice than just a few moments ago. “I just liked hearing that you were seeing someone who is so accomplished.”

  “Since I usually just see untalented sluts?”

  My father frowns and lets out another sigh. “That’s not what I was saying. You always think I’m attacking your choices. All I was saying about this girl is I’m glad you’re seeing someone who is so successful. You deserve that.”

  Before I can stop myself, I say, “She isn’t successful. She makes desserts at a little hole-in-the-wall r
estaurant to help her parents with their business.”

  I don’t know why I tell him that. Not that every word of it isn’t technically true, but it makes Hailey sound like so much less than she is.

  “Well, Alex raved about her. He says she’s a first-class chef.”

  “Well, if Alex says that, then it must be true.”

  This meeting has quickly gone to hell, and for possibly the first time in my life, I can’t blame my father for that. I don’t know why, but hearing him mention what Alex thinks of Hailey makes my blood boil. I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of her. Let them not think of her at all. That would be even better.

  A look of sadness permeates my father’s expression now as he stares across the desk at me. “Does it always have to be a pitched battle between us, Cade? I just wanted you to know that I’m happy you’re seeing someone so wonderful. What’s the problem in that?”

  I turn away, hating how disappointed he looks at this moment. “No. Sorry. Thanks. Is this what you wanted to talk about?”

  Before I look back at him, I hear the emotion has hardened in his voice. “No. The club is celebrating its five year anniversary after the flood, and I need you here at the front bar Friday night. It’s going to be huge, like a packed house huge, so I can’t have you being late.”

  Nodding, I turn to face him. “Got it. Friday night. I’ll be here by six for the staff meeting.”

  The look of surprise I get for that I deserve. Even when I worked here full-time, I rarely bothered with attending my father’s staff meetings. He loves those things. My mother told me once that he used to run them when he was just the manager of the bar, and since then, he’s held one every night before opening. She thinks it’s a ritual for him. I think it’s his way to show everyone just who the boss is here.

  “Great, great! I’ll be happy to see you there.”

  “One favor, though, Dad. Put Maya somewhere I’m not. If that means you put me upstairs and she gets the main bar, so be it. I’m fine with that. Whatever you think works. I just don’t want to have to deal with her all night while putting on my good time bartender face.”