Lowdown Dirty

by Holley Trent

  “Oh, God,” Carine said with eyes going wide, “your sister. She—never mind. Wait right there. I’ll tell you after I change.”

  Oh boy.

  Carine hurried up the steps, and of course, Valerie followed right on her heels. “Don’t leave me in the lurch like that! What about my sister?”

  “Well, you know, we chat.” At the foot of the bed, Carine wriggled out of her pencil skirt and pawed at the buttons of her blouse. “She’s funny and she gives me insights that help me manipulate you.”

  Valerie rolled her eyes. Again, who needs enemies? “Obviously, she doesn’t know everything about me.”

  “And I’m not gonna change that. The soap opera that is you and Timmy is plenty enough entertainment for me at the moment, but because she’s not in the loop, we might need to strategize some ways to keep what’s supposed to be a secret a secret.”

  “What do you mean? And there is no Valerie-Timmy soap opera.”

  Carine snorted, walked into the en-suite bathroom, and draped her shirt over the shower rod, followed by her bra.

  She didn’t even bother covering herself as she moved to the walk-in closet. She probably didn’t see the point in bothering, given that Valerie wasn’t actually the prude she’d made herself out to be.

  Flicking on the light, Carine said, “There’s totally a Valerie-Timmy soap opera, and lookie-loo that I am, I’m enjoying a front-row seat. You’re playing this chase game with him, and that’s just gonna get him hotter than you can handle.”

  “You know from experience, huh?”

  “Nope. Told you, Tim’s not my type, but his reputation follows him around like an eager submissive on a leash.” She grabbed a shirtdress from a hanger and shoved her arms into it.

  “Oh, get this,” Valerie said, dancing her eyebrows teasingly. “Speaking of subs on leashes, the delivery guy stopped in earlier and made me out from Clay’s place. He said he saw us through the window when we were waiting for your tow Saturday morning.”

  Carine’s eyes went comically round. “Who was he?”

  “I didn’t catch his name. Like you said about Tim—not my type, so my gaze didn’t linger.”

  “And a delivery guy, you said? Jeez. I wonder which one. Some folks are more discreet at Clay’s than others. Anyway, I was telling your sister about what goes down at Clay’s and…she kind of invited herself down.”

  Valerie blew out a sputtering breath. “Well, that makes no difference to me. I have no intention of going back.”

  “Yeah, but, here’s the thing. People talk. They may keep secrets out here in the open where we have to be upright and professional, but inside that house, they’re gonna pass along snippets of information, and somehow, it’s gonna shake out that you’re fucking Tim.”

  “I’m not fucking Tim.”

  “They’re gonna assume you are. No one there would say no to Tim.”

  “There’s nothing to say no to. He hasn’t asked me anything.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I don’t like your incredulous tone.”

  “And I don’t like you thinking I’m stupid.”

  Valerie sighed. “I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you’re just reading more into the situation than is actually happening.”

  “I’m not reading more into it. You’re not reading enough into it, but I guess you wouldn’t because you don’t know all the backstory.”

  “If it’s so important, then tell me.”

  “No, ma’am,” Carine said. “I’m gonna keep you in the dark just like you kept me in the dark about your freak-nasty proclivities, nerd.”

  Valerie groaned. “Get back to the subject at hand. Just disinvite Leah. Tell her she needs a special ticket. That’s true, right?”

  Carine scoffed and finished fastening the last of the long row of dress buttons. With a chest as large as hers, she needed a bra, but Valerie probably didn’t need to tell her that.

  “That would have normally been true, but sometimes, Clay does weird and unexpected things, and so does your sister, apparently.”

  “What did she do? Actually”—Valerie threw her hands up—“I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know shit.”

  “I’m gonna tell you anyway, because that girl does what she wants, and you need to stay ahead of the wave she’s gonna make. I guess she took a page out of my book of tricks and friended Clay on Facebook.”

  Valerie’s knees gave out from under her, but thankfully she had the bed right behind her to catch her ass. “No,” she said after picking up her jaw from the floor.

  “Mm-hmm.” Carine fluffed her hair in the dresser’s mirror and perked up her boobs the best she could. “And I guess they started messaging each other because somehow homegirl got herself an open invitation. I bet she’ll be down here next week.”

  “I’m running away.”

  “Might not be such a bad idea. That girl is wild and you’re gonna have to keep on her ass like a probation officer on a two-time perpetrator.”

  Valerie cringed, knowing full well the woman was right. “This is all your fault. You should have told me where you were taking me, and I would have lied my way out of it upfront.”

  Carine gave Valerie a long blink and twined the end of her hair around her fingers. “One day, you’ll thank me.”

  “For getting a salacious component of my former lifestyle exposed to my tight-ass employers who’ll then use my poor choices as a reason to not give me what I deserve? I don’t see that thank-you ever happening.”

  “No, you’ll thank me for facilitating your introduction to Tim. You guys should date. Really.”

  “That’s called commitment. We’ve already been through this and what a bad idea it is.”

  “I think you need to get over yourself.”

  Valerie headed for the stairs and her keys. “You know what, red lady? I changed my mind. I’m gonna drive you home.”

  “Coward.”

  “Fine. I’ll be that. The alternative is being miserable when opportunity passes me by yet again.”

  “Relationships are opportunities, too, Valerie.” Carine followed her down the stairs.

  “They’re either opportunities or distractions, and I don’t know yet which Tim is. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to be here. He knows that.”

  “I think you’re squandering what could be a good match.”

  “Noted.” Valerie jangled her keys. “Now. Are you going to be nice or am I driving you home to your momma?”

  Carine rolled her eyes and sidled around her. “Shut up. I’m going to see if I can get Frank to bring us a pizza.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Tim was an opportunist at heart. That was why instead of having his ass on a tractor every day of his life, he ran a boat company with millions of dollars in annual revenue. He took calculated risks to get what he wanted. The risks didn’t always pan out, but rarely ever did he regret trying.

  So, when he retrieved Valerie’s pleading voicemail from his phone upon landing in Norfolk after his ten-day-long Bermuda trip, he put aside his hesitations and heeded Heidi’s go-for-it advice.

  “Dear God, get me out of here,” Valerie had pleaded. “Please.”

  It seemed like an opportunity to him, so he was going to try to make something good happen. He went home, swapped out the dirty clothes in his suitcase for clean ones, and then burned up the road to Shora with the bag in his backseat.

  He stepped into the office and found her on the phone.

  Her eyes widened as if with shock, and then she furrowed her brow, scoffing.

  “I’m not letting you change your mind.” He leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest.

  She hung up the phone and stared at him while drumming her fingers atop the desk.

  “Trying to think up an excuse to back out?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  “You called me.”

  “That was nine days ago, and I wasn’t in my right mind at the moment. I was delirious. Anyone w
ould have been.”

  “So, you don’t want me to take you away for a while?”

  “Oh, I definitely want to go away.”

  Just not with me, huh?

  He drew in a calming breath and raked a hand through his uncombed hair. “All right. Tell me what happened.”

  She sighed and her stiff posture relaxed a bit. “Okay. Look. My sister is on the way here to check out the lowdown dirty shenanigans at Clay’s. I think she had her mind set on it two weeks ago when your brother decided it’d be a good idea to invite her.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because he and Carine apparently went to the same school of meddling, and they’re all friends on Facebook now. Of course he told her what happens at his house.”

  Tim pinched the bridge of his nose.

  Jesus, Clay.

  “My sister is probably the single most uninhibited person on the east coast. She’ll get herself in trouble and then say her exploits will make her memoirs that much more interesting.”

  “How old is she?”

  Valerie’s cheek twitched. “A year younger than me.”

  Which told him absolutely nothing. He still didn’t know exactly how old she was, but he could guess that her sister was a consenting adult. He took another bracing breath. “If she’s a grown woman, what’s the big deal if she shows up? Knowing Clay, he didn’t beat around the bush about what happens at his place.”

  Valerie shook her head slowly. “Oh, no. He didn’t hash his words at all.”

  “And yet she wants to come anyway?” Tim wasn’t quite grasping the problem.

  “Yeah. This kind of thing is right up her alley. She likes to experience new things in a big way, and she’s definitely not a prude.” Valerie swiveled her chair for a couple of seconds, and added in a mumble, “Like me.”

  “Of all the things you are, I don’t think prude is one of them.”

  She shrugged, and one half of her mouth curved up into a shape somewhere between smirk and grimace.

  He shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned more comfortably against the doorframe. “Explain to me in simple terms why you’re trying to flee in advance the fallout from your sister’s arrival.”

  “Well, because Leah would try to convince me to go with her, and I would have to, because if I said no, she’s going to think I’m becoming more laidback about the big sister thing, which I’m not. She’s ferocious when it comes to needling people. I would end up going, someone would run their mouth about me, and by the time all was said and done, she’d know way too much about me and all the respect I’ve fought so hard for her to give me would go poof.”

  “First of all, you’re not her mother. You’re allowed to have a life.” Just like he was, according to Heidi. He was still trying to convince himself. “Second of all, you didn’t do anything at Clay’s. What is she going to find out about you?”

  Valerie’s cheek twitched again.

  Oh, hell. She was hiding something. He could feel it in his bones like a thunderstorm moving into the area.

  “Here’s the thing,” she said. “I’ve been her shadow and conscience for so long, that I’m not convinced she would know how to make a good decision if it weren’t for me.”

  “Again, she’s how old?”

  “A year younger than me.”

  He pushed up an eyebrow.

  “What?”

  “I have no idea how old you are. I can only guess that you’re around Carine’s age.”

  Valerie smoothed some nonexistent wrinkles out of her top. “Carine’s got a couple of years on me.”

  “Which makes you…”

  “Why?”

  “I’m a numbers guy. I like numbers.” That, and because at forty-three, there was a certain unseemliness about potentially perusing a woman who was in the decade bracket two below his.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m thirty…ish.”

  Thank God.

  His breath came out in a gust of relief.

  “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to poke around for women’s ages?” Valerie asked.

  “My mother is a good woman taught both of her sons a lot of things, but that didn’t stop either of us from straying far outside the standard deviation of decency.” He canted his head toward the door. “Turn off your computer. Let’s go.”

  She entwined her fingers and worked her jaw side-to-side for a few beats.

  “I don’t mind you changing your mind. That’s a lady’s prerogative, but I don’t think you’ve changed your mind. You just don’t want to give me an easy yes. Would it kill you to come along sweetly?”

  “Would it have killed you to tell me upfront that you were a dom?”

  He felt like his heart stopped.

  Who told her that?

  She sat there glowering at him, sitting so primly and comfortably as if those words meant nothing to her. He didn’t believe that lie. They all lied before they understood that Tim was as serious in his play as he was with his work.

  “Hmm?” she said by way of nudging.

  He played it cool. He most certainly wasn’t going to ask her how she’d figured that out or who’d told her. Not yet, anyway,

  “I don’t know at what point we could have possibly had a conversation about that,” he said flatly. “And what difference does it make, anyway?”

  “It makes a lot of difference. You assume I wouldn’t have known what that meant—you all did. I do. Quite well, actually. And I know a dom isn’t going to stop being a dom just because he doesn’t think his date doesn’t know what a Dom is.”

  “And how do you feel about doms?”

  She lifted her bare shoulders in a graceful shrug. She was wearing some kind of top with spaghetti straps, though with the angle of the desk, he couldn’t tell if it was just a shirt or part of a dress. Either way, there was no bra beneath it. He could clearly see her nipples protruding, begging for pinches.

  He closed his eyes and willed himself to think chase thoughts.

  “Depends on the dom,” she said. “I don’t indulge in the lifestyle anymore.”

  Ah.

  So, his radar hadn’t been busted. He’d been right that there’d been something unusual about her trusting enthusiasm.

  “I see,” he murmured. “So, you think it’s impossible for me to not be a dom, but you don’t think it’s impossible for you to not be a brat?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ve never been a brat.”

  “So what are you?”

  “Free of entanglements, and I’d like to stay that way. I don’t know why I called you. It was a rare moment of weakness brought on by a caffeine deficit or low blood sugar levels or something. I’m sure you can understand why I wouldn’t want my sister to know what I’ve been up to.”

  “Yeah. Do as you say, not as you do, huh? Come here, pretty girl.” He pointed to the spot right in front of him and waited.

  She didn’t budge. Actually, she did everything but go to him. She studied her cuticles, sorted through some mail atop her desk, fished around in her drawer for—apparently—nothing in particular.

  He kept pointing to that spot in front of his toes. He could make her pay for the recalcitrance later, but for the moment, he couldn’t give up an inch. If he did, she’d think he didn’t mean what he said.

  Clay was right, and so was Valerie. Tim couldn’t just turn off what he was, and especially not when he had a live wire submissive on the hook who needed shepherding. She’d said she’d let someone else do the steering if she trusted him, and he craved that trust.

  “Each minute you keep me waiting will be one I’ll return to you tenfold,” he said quietly.

  She furrowed her brow and drummed her fingers against the chair arms. She rolled her eyes as she sighed, but slowly pushed back from the desk.

  She walked over—wearing dusty steel-toed boots that actually didn’t look so bad with the delicate pattern of her cotton dress—and turned her gaze up to him. “What do you need?”

&nbs
p; “Lift your dress for me. I want to see what you’re wearing beneath.”

  She let out another long, ragged exhale and gripped the fabric of her skirt. Slowly, she inched it up, just far enough to expose the lace tops of her sheer stockings, complete with garters.

  Of course that pleased him. The decadent sight of her taut thighs and that beautiful lace sent a tug of look at that down to his sleeping cock, and naturally, it answered. The surge of blood was immediate.

  He helped her smooth down the dress and whispered, “And who are you wearing those for if you didn’t really want to see me?”

  “I never said I didn’t want to see you.”

  Brat.

  “Where’s your bag?” He wasn’t going to ask if she’d packed. He knew she had, just in case.

  “In the kitchen.”

  “I’ll get it. How about you change your shoes and wait for me in the truck? Give me your keys. I’ll lock up.” He didn’t want to leave room for her to make any more excuses. If she was having a hard time making decisions, he’d make some for her. Obviously, she was asking for the help.

  She handed the keys to him and climbed the stairs.

  He headed into the kitchen, locked the deadbolt of the back door, checked the windows, and grabbed the handle of her small, rolling suitcase. She probably had enough clothing in there for four or five days, which might or might not be enough. He didn’t really have a plan except to put her on his boat and push away from the shore. He didn’t care about business at the moment. Heidi could put out any fires at the factory, and if there were any other issues, he’d be finding out soon enough if his foremen were really the best candidates for their jobs. Maybe it was about time he gave them some room to do them without his intervention.

  And he was going to do everything he could not to micromanage Kevin’s house arrest from afar. Tim was still fresh out of ideas on how to connect with the kid. He wasn’t going to wipe his hands clean on getting Kevin straightened out, but he definitely needed a break from the anxiety.

  He just wanted to enjoy someone else’s company for a little while without feeling so fucking guilty.