Masked Indulgence: A Billionaire Holiday Romance (Nightclub Sins Book 2)

by Michelle Love

  “I’m well aware, Arsen,” I replied bluntly, trying not to say too much.

  “Well, do you feel the same way?” I felt him move a little closer to me.

  “Maybe.” I smirked and rolled over on my side. I felt him pull me back so that my body touched his and his hand grazed my leg.

  “So why aren’t we doing anything about that?” His hand slipped between my thighs and I began to melt, but I wasn’t going to let him know that he had full control of my body at the moment. I pulled his hand away and laughed lightly.

  “Goodnight, Arsen Lockhart.”

  “I really felt like the connection was there. I guess not,” he spoke quietly. He moved back away from me and turned over. “Whenever you’re ready, Lola, just let me know.”

  “Again,” I smiled to myself. “Goodnight, Arsen Lockhart,”

  Oh, how the times had changed. I went from trying to be uptight around him to making love in his California king bed. I felt truly refreshed.

  The note also stated that Ms. Rose would be off for the next three days on vacation, so I could go downstairs and help myself to something to eat for breakfast. I slid out of bed, grabbed my robe, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. It was my first time ever being in there, so I was amazed at how big and nice it was.

  I didn’t really feel like cooking anything, so I looked around until I found a bowl and spoon to get some cereal. I sat at the island and ate in silence. I felt sort of out of place not eating a five-star breakfast in a huge bed, but I liked it. This way made me feel like I belonged here. I smiled and spun around on the stool.

  “Hey, beautiful.” I heard Arsen’s voice and quickly snapped my head in his direction.

  “Arsen!” I shouted excitedly and jumped down from the stool to run over to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss.

  “How are you?” He smiled and held my waist in his hands.

  “I’m great.” I smiled. “I thought you were at work”

  “I came home for a quick lunch.” He smiled and walked past me into the kitchen. He went in the fridge and pulled out a sandwich covered in plastic wrap. “Pre-made sandwiches are a blessing”

  I laughed and grabbed my empty cereal bowl to put in the dishwasher. I looked over at Arsen, who had already started to eat his lunch. I picked up a napkin and wiped the side of his mouth. I just watched in amusement as he ate. I couldn’t wait to see his reaction the day I cooked for him.

  The next day Arsen taught me how to calculate how much money was supposed to be coming in and being sent out to the cartel’s partners. It was pretty easy, like I expected. It just a process that took a lot of time and that you had to be very careful with.

  After going through that mini-lesson, Arsen explained to me that I would be meeting the gang. I was extremely nervous for this. They all knew me as the nosey girl who had peaked through Arsen’s email and put their cartel at risk.

  The ride to the meeting was long and kind of boring due to not only the lack of conversation between Arsen and I, but also the lack of good music on the radio. We had to change the station at least three times. Nonetheless, I was very anxious, no matter how confident sitting in a car next to someone as beautiful as Arsen made me feel.

  We finally made it to our destination and a took a deep breath. I looked in the mirror to make sure I looked presentable and just hoped for the best.

  “Are you ready for this, Lola?” Arsen asked while watching me watch myself in the mirror.

  “No, but I’ll have to get it done whether I’m ready or not.” I laughed a little.

  “Then let’s go, love.” He got out of the car and started walking toward the building. I soon followed his actions and walked inside behind him.

  He led me to a room in the back, where it smelled like beer and cigarettes. I hated the smell but I’d just have to deal with it.

  “Guys, guys! Gather around!” Arsen called. He sat in a chair and pulled me onto his lap. All of the guys sat down in a group in front of us. “This is Lola and she’ll be helping us out around here.”

  “What will she be doing, boss?” a random guy asked from the back of the group.

  “I’ll be handling all you guy’s finances,” I spoke up. “And trust me, you have nothing to worry about. I am completely trustworthy and a perfect fit for this job.”

  “Cool,” the guy replied. “Welcome.”

  “Yeah, welcome” one of the men in the front spoke. The rest of the guys followed suit and welcomed me as well.

  “Thanks, guys. I promise I won’t disappoint.” I smiled. Arsen then began telling me each of the member’s names and their job, including their job outside of the cartel.

  “Are you ready for your first task, Lo?” Arsen spoke in my ear and I agreed.

  “We need you to take this money.” Pete lifted a box up and sat it on the table separating them from Arsen and I.

  “And put it into three different banks,” David said sliding a piece of paper to me that had the bank’s account number and information.

  “Cool.” I stood up and grabbed both the box and the piece of paper.

  “I think you should wear three different outfits so no one will notice you going from bank to bank,” Pete suggested.

  “Actually,” I stated. “If you guys have cards with these accounts, I can just go to the three different banks all over the town and maybe even go to one in the next city over.”

  “You got yourself a smart one, Lockhart,” David chuckled which caused me to smirk.

  “I know.” Arsen laughed and slid his keys in my hand and a spare phone. “You can use my car, babe.”

  “Sweet,” I replied and turned to him. “Thanks, babe!”

  I leaned over and gave him a passionate kiss on the lips.

  “Mmmm,” I hummed as I pulled away and winked at him. “See you guys later.”

  “Geez, boss. How’d you pull one like that?” I heard one them mumble on my way out. I laughed at the comment and left the clubhouse.

  When I got inside the car, I looked up the banks locations on the GPS and decided to go the ones that were all very far away from each other. Before I pulled off, I got a text from Arsen telling me to meet him back at his place when I was finished.

  Arsen

  I texted Lola telling her to meet me at the house when she was done because David was going to give me a lift home.

  “I see why you couldn’t kill her,” Pete laughed. “She’s fucking gorgeous man. How’d you get her?”

  I just raised an eyebrow in response.

  “Not saying young, hot girls can’t be interested in you,” Pete said, holding his hands up in defense. “But that is a different level of hot, man. She’s flawless.”

  “It just happened.” I laughed. “I saw her and I knew I had to make her mine. I remember it like it was yesterday.

  When I first laid eyes on her I knew she was the one. She had brown eyes, wavy hair, and plump lips painted a matte wine red. What first caught my eye was the smirk on her face when the teacher called out everyone’s name and she didn’t reply. As I watched her, I wondered how she could be bold enough to sit in on someone else’s class.

  I walked to the middle of the class with my hands behind my back to introduce myself and smiled. You could hear the silent whistles and occasional OMGs coming from the female students. All except for her. That was new for me. She didn’t even move her eyes up from her bag to see what was going on. I was honestly caught off guard, being that I was always the center of everyone’s attention when I walked into the room. A woman had never not taken an interest in me, so this random student not giving me the time of day made me drawn to her and only her. I loved a woman that I had to chase after a little.

  So, of course, I started off my lecture with the basic, “Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Arsen Lockhart and this is how I became a billionaire novelist.” As soon as the word “novelist” slipped out, it was like something clicked inside of her brain. Her head popped up immediately an
d she began paying attention to everything I was saying.

  We made eye contact from across the room, and from the moment I saw her, I knew I had to make her mine. She bit down on her lip as she watched me walk around the classroom. It was really a coincidence that on the day she had skipped her class, a great opportunity like this had come about. There had to be a reason the universe pulled us together.

  I felt so deeply about her that telling the story to the guys made me fall for her all over again. Those almond shaped eyes and pouty lips made me weak, not to mention the sex we had. It was fucking amazing.

  “Life just feels right with her in it.” I smiled to myself.

  “That’s, uh, real beautiful, boss, but I just got an email that there’s a new gang in town and they’re trying to become the biggest gang here.”

  Lola

  Making the bank transactions was really easy, but while leaving the bank, I noticed that the crazy lady who had attacked Arsen on our first date was watching me from her car. The lady was oddly familiar. I drove past her slowly to try to remember exactly who she was.

  That’s when it clicked! The crazy woman was Anabella’s mom. She looked very sick and demented, which was probably why I didn’t notice her in the first place. That explains why I saw her leaving my dorm building.

  She stared at me the entire time I drove past her and continued to watch until I was out of sight. It gave me goose bumps, honestly. The look on her face was terrifying. She looked dead inside.

  I shook away the vision of her in my mind and just focused on getting back to Arsen. The drive back home was peaceful. I didn’t bother to play the radio because I got lost in my writer’s brain yet again.

  If this were a scene in a book, the sky would be orange. No …peach. The way it varied in three different shades would resemble the hombre of the juicy fruit. The clouds resembled the peach fuzz that grazes the thin layer of skin. The sun would be a yellow spot peeking through. Oh, what a beauty.

  And what was I? Just an ant finding its way through the busy traffic of this hive we called life. The gush of wind was heavy, signs of a hurricane coming. Well …a hurricane to an ant, that is.

  Back in reality, it was just a simple summer’s rain. And I was just a writer who was also a hopeless romantic when it came to Arsen Lockhart. For some reason, I always forgot that he was a murderer and a drug dealer. It was just that I never saw the bad side of him unless we were being intimate. It was scary to say, but even if I had seen that side of him, my feelings for him wouldn't have faded.

  I called his phone twice, but there was no answer. The rain was pouring down. There was even a bit of thunder and lightning. When I opened the contacts application on the phone, I saw that the only other numbers were Ms. Rose and the driver. I didn't expect to find anything, but I opened the notes and there was actually something that I needed to see.

  The note said that there was a spare key to the front door underneath the plant on the right-hand side of the front step. I got out and ran to the door to avoid getting wet. I got the key and opened the door. I didn't hear anything or see any sign of anyone being home. I shut the door behind me it and locked it.

  I jogged upstairs to my room and got ready to take a shower. I had to wash this rain off of me. I tossed all of my clothes into the hamper and went into the bathroom. I ran the shower water until it got hot enough for my desires. I stepped inside and let the water kiss my skin.

  There was nothing better than a hot shower after your first day on the job as a financier for a drug cartel. I kind of laughed to myself at the thought of the god-awful joke in my head. The shower was my favorite place to think. It gave me time to really process the things that were going on in my life. The number one thing that I was focused on processing at that moment was my relationship with Arsen.

  Where did our relationship go from here? Honestly. We had both shown each other how we feel, but neither of us has actually put it into words how we felt. It was strange. Two very bold and courageous writers, yet we both couldn’t come up with the words to say to each other.

  It was confusing, and honestly, I didn’t think either of us had the answers to each other's questions at that very moment. But we both knew that we had strong feelings for each other. I think that we were both expecting and longing for that perfect speech in which we both expressed our undying love for each other. I didn’t think that was going to come anytime soon.

  So, we were just going to have to live in the moment. We just had to take a deep breath and exist as two human beings in like. My feelings for the man were going to be the death of me. I believed it more and more each day.

  I could definitely see us spending our lives together in paradise. Just us two together, forming one bond. That was my dream life. That was the life I saw myself sharing with him. He was the perfect guy for me.

  As much as I loved to dig deep into my thoughts while taking a shower, it was time for it to come to an end. I washed my hair, face, and body until I was squeaky clean. When I got out, I headed directly toward my closet to find something to wear. I put on a sports bra and a pair of sweatpants. I put on a pair of slippers, too, because I wanted to go downstairs and find something to eat.

  I made it downstairs to the kitchen to find something to eat. I didn't feel like cooking a full meal, so I pulled out whatever food was left in the fridge. I made a sub sandwich loaded with veggies and topped it off with a small amount of mustard and mayo.

  After eating the sandwich, I went right back to my room just to check on my schedule for tomorrow. The only thing that I had planned was to go grocery shopping and I was excited. I rolled over on my back and stared at the ceiling. Hopefully Arsen had enough free time to cook me something.

  Like maybe we could go to the beach again or we could go dancing in a nightclub. Just something new. I had every right to be a dreamer and that's what I was doing. I was always daydreaming. My head was always in the clouds.

  I just wanted to go out and spend time with him as much as I could. I knew that he was a very busy man and that being a billionaire didn’t come easily, but I couldn't picture my day without him. I started to become really lonely without him around. I craved for his energy. I knew that I needed to be around him more than usual because our bond was starting to become unbreakable.

  "Hey, baby girl." I heard his voice from the doorway and jumped up instantly.

  "Hi!" I smiled. "I didn't know you were here."

  "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. When I got home I decided to take a quick nap, but I think I fell asleep too deeply, as you can see." He shook his head. "I missed a lot of phone calls and texts."

  He walked into the room and came and sat down next to me. He used his index finger and thumb to brush my hair back behind my ear. Such an innocent gesture, but it held so much passion within it. I leaned in and left a peck on his lips. This wasn't love, but it was something very close to it.

  Arsen

  We both woke up in Lola’s bed. My arms were wrapped around her and her head was laying on my chest. This was a moment of pure bliss.

  “Good morning,” I whispered as I placed a kiss on her forehead.

  "Morning." She yawned and sat up.

  "Let's go get some breakfast." I stood up from the bed scooped her up into my arms. I carried her all the way downstairs to the kitchen and sat her down on the counter.

  "Pancakes, please," she uttered in a soft tone.

  "Pancakes it is, sweetheart." I smiled and proceeded to take out all of the ingredients that I needed.

  I turned on the radio and opened up the curtains to the kitchen’s patio. When she laid eyes on the backyard, so much excitement grew within her.

  “You have a pool and didn’t tell me??” She hopped off of the counter and ran over to the patio door. She unlocked it and went outside to look around.

  I laughed at her excitement and pulled a packet of maple bacon out of the freezer. Ms. Rose told me about how she loved this kind of bacon the most. I sat some out on a pan and put i
t in the oven. While I waited for them to cook, I began making my special apple cinnamon pancakes.

  She’d never had my cooking before, so I wondered how she’d react. She came back in and walked over to me.

  “Can I make coffee, babe?” She looked up at me. “And your backyard is stunning, if I may say so myself.”

  “Thanks.” I chuckled. “And of course you can make coffee. The machine is over there. Make a big pot for the both of us.

  “Got ya.’” She nodded and started to make the coffee.

  The only sounds that were audible at that moment were the sizzling of the bacon in the oven, the coffee brewing, and the soft music coming from the radio. I finished up the pancakes and put some on plates for the both of us.