by M. Malone
“I wanted to ask your opinion on something, Hailey, but it can wait.” My father looked like he was ready to run out of the room, but my mother beat him to it.
“No, don’t leave. I have a spa appointment anyway. Just remember what I said, dear.” She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and left with an appreciative glance at Dylan.
My father tugged at his tie nervously. “What was your mother going on about?”
“Nothing. I think she just wanted to make sure I was okay after the attack.”
I could tell he wanted to say something else, but in the end he decided not to. Which was entirely descriptive of our family dynamics, wasn’t it? My mother did something reckless, and my father stuck his head in the sand while I kept working and Evan ignored us all.
At least avoidance was a family trait.
Oskar
Calling in sick was childish, yet I’d done it again today. Tyse had taken my first shift and Dylan had taken over from him. But in the end, I decided that avoidance was better than the alternative.
And… cue the way-too-detailed flashback. Fuck, my memory was too good as I remembered Hailey’s lush little body squirming all over my lap. That moment, while clearly a bad idea, was going to fuel all of my shower jerkoff sessions for the next few years. The girl was hell on my control.
If I spent any time around Hailey right now, I wouldn’t remember all the reasons we needed to be apart.
I was weak. There. I’d admitted it. An honest man could take a good, long, hard look at himself and face up to his mistakes and his weaknesses. And Hailey was my biggest weakness. She made me forget about all the bad shit I was running from and made me think about clouds and puppies and all that touchy-feely shit that men like me didn’t deserve.
Two days apart was probably not enough to put a damper on whatever the hell this was between us. Any longer and Noah would wonder what the hell was wrong with me. I hardly ever got sick. None of us did. But it would have to be enough time for the memory of her swollen lips and sparkling eyes to fade.
It would have to be, since nothing could ever come of it.
Another text message came through from Dylan. He’d been sending me a stream of commentary all day about the people coming and going from Hailey’s office. I think he was just trolling me at that point, since he’d seen me last night and knew I wasn’t actually sick.
Dylan: You picked a hell of a day to skip out.
Oskar: Is everything okay?
Dylan: The mom just came by and as she went in whispered, “Aged wine is the best.”
Doubling over, I ignored Matthias’s annoyed look. Seriously, I needed to frame some of these messages just so I could blow them up and hang them around the office to torture Dylan with later. Not that there was anything wrong with a little cougar love. I didn’t discriminate, and I’d learned some of my best sexual tricks from older women over the years. But the image of Hailey’s conservative mother putting the moves on an incredibly uncomfortable Dylan was just comedy gold.
A few minutes later, a string of messages came in one after the other, making my phone sound like an angry bird chirping.
Dylan: Wow, I just overheard her telling Hailey that she “likes them young.” Should I be worried?
Dylan: She just grabbed my ass.
Dylan: Dude, seriously this wasn’t just a typical ass grab. Her fingers separated the cheeks!
Dylan: I’ve never felt so disrespected.
Dylan: Tell Noah that I want to file a complaint. This is an unsafe work environment.
Oskar: Will do.
Dylan: Wait, you know I was just kidding, right?
Dylan: Oskar?
Dylan: Oh, stop fucking with me!
I smothered my laugh with my hand. I decided not to answer. It was way more fun to leave him hanging and wondering if I’d actually told Noah anything.
“Are you even listening, mate?” Matthias’s accent was more pronounced when he was annoyed.
“I am. Just thinking, that’s all.”
He knew I was lying, no doubt, but the tatted-up Englishman also wasn’t the type to pry. He had plenty of secrets of his own, so he generally respected the rights of others to keep their business to themselves.
“Well, while you’re thinking, do you mind moving your big arse off my desk?”
Technically, I was already supposed to have left by now, since I was due to meet with Hailey’s father and also get some information while I was on the company premises. But it was way more fun to hang here when I knew my presence was annoying Matthias.
I grinned and planted another butt cheek on the furniture in question. For a former assassin, the guy was awfully fussy about his stuff, which made fucking with his head a game that never got old.
As long as I didn’t touch any of the electronics in the room, it was all fun and games. But messing with one of his laptops was grounds for a fight.
Don’t ask me how I knew that, either.
“Can you check into her family again?”
Matthias pretended he wasn’t still looking at my ass parked on the edge of his desk. With a long-suffering sigh, I stood up. Since I was asking the guy for a favor, it was probably a good idea not to rile him too much. Not that he wouldn’t grant the favor. Matthias took his work very seriously and would always go above and beyond for a client.
But he’d definitely find some subtle way to make me pay for pissing him off. On second thought, his methods probably wouldn’t be that subtle. The dude did love knives, after all.
“I already finished background checks on the whole family. They’re clean. Boring, but clean.”
“Yeah, but I figure there might be something that pops out to you on a second look. Maybe there’s a cousin who wants in on the family business. Hell, maybe the mom is tired of being sent to rehab and has decided to engage in a more domestic sort of chaos. It could be anything, but I’ll feel better the more we know.”
Matthias shrugged. “Did you get a bad feeling from the mom?”
“Haven’t met her yet but according to Dylan, she’s a real piece of work. Speaking of, I need to get going. I just want to wrap this one up. The sooner, the better.”
The whole way over to Livingston Perfumes, I reviewed what we knew so far. Hailey was a workaholic and didn’t have much life outside of her job, which increased the likelihood that her attack was related to Livingston Perfumes in some way. Her parents weren’t divorced but should be, and her mother was way more aggressive than she appeared. Her brother seemed to be the classic case of a poor little rich boy with too much money and not enough actual work to do.
Basically, her case was like tons of other cases that we’d solved pretty quickly. So what were we missing about this one?
When I arrived at Livingston Perfumes, I sent a silent prayer that Hailey wouldn’t be visiting her father at the exact moment that I was there. I was supposed to give him an update and also get some personnel files that Matthias had requested.
After parking, I used the special keycard I’d been issued to bypass the usual wait for the elevator and go directly to Hailey’s floor. Before the doors closed, I saw Evan come out of an unmarked door in the garage and rush to a vehicle parked all the way at the edge of the lot. He looked over his shoulder before he got in the car and then immediately the vehicle started pulling out of the space.
Where was he going in such a rush? We had very little information about Hailey’s brother other than he was two years older and worked directly with her father running the company. Or at least that was his listed job description. It didn’t seem as though he actually did much work.
It was probably nothing, but I’d long ago learned to trust my instincts, so I sent a quick message to Matthias. If he was going to dig deeper into Hailey’s family, it wouldn’t hurt to start with her brother. There was definitely more going on there than what was on the surface.
I laughed softly to myself thinking about the text messages I’d received from Dylan earlier. There was definite
ly more to this family if Hailey’s bodyguard wasn’t even safe from a friendly grope at the hands of her mother. Normally I would have called Hailey after that and teased her about it, but that kind of stuff had to stop.
We weren’t friends, and we couldn’t be lovers. That was just the way it had to be.
12
Hailey
How long could he avoid me?
Well, so it seems, a while.
If he would just talk to me, we could figure out what was going on. My mind kept replaying his hands in my hair as he’d kissed me, his tongue sliding over mine, his hands on my hips as he dragged me under him, the sexy grind of it. It was a miracle I hadn’t spontaneously combusted by now.
I needed help. Real help, because clearly, I had no idea what I was doing.
At this point, the man was completely avoiding me. I hadn’t seen him in a day. No, that was not true. I briefly saw him yesterday morning when he legitimately ran away from me.
Tyse—I guessed he was new, as everyone called him the new kid—had been escorting me down to the car to drive me into work, and Oskar had come out of the gym. The moment he saw me, he’d frozen, and actually scooted around and run back into the gym. I’d seen him peeking out as the elevator door closed. A grown man, running away from me. If he didn’t want me, fine. But at least he should be man enough to say so. Not kiss me like that and then just leave me.
Maybe there’s a reason. Like the last time? I still wasn’t sure how much I believed him about what had happened before. But I wanted to know. And now that he’d woken up the woman I’d buried deep inside, I went to bed every night frustrated, irritated, and so damn horny I was ready to start humping my pillow. And that was his fault.
I needed an expert.
Good thing I had one of those on speed dial. I flopped on the bed, my shoes dangling off the ends of my feet as I dialed Priya.
She answered on the second ring. “What’s up, buttercup?”
God, I missed her. Ever since she’d gone to graduate school at UCLA, it had been hard to keep as close in touch as we used to be.
She was my best friend, and I spoke to her maybe twice a week. We used to talk that many times a day. But work and school was a real hindrance in our bestie goal situation. “How’s school? Are you in the middle of something? Studying?”
“I know you’re not wasting our two calls a week to ask me about classes. What gives?”
“Nothing. I’m curious about school.”
“Come on, you didn’t call to ask me about my dusty professors or that TA I’m banging.”
“What?” I sat straight up.
“What?” Priya sputtered. “Never mind all that. What’s wrong with you?”
I sighed. Where did I even start? “Um, okay. It’s a long story, but—”
“This sounds like I need popcorn.”
“You might. Hell, I need popcorn with extra butter.”
Now I had a real craving. But I was going to ignore that. “Okay. You remember Vegas?”
“That epic trip where you got drunk for the first time, then got your cherry popped in royal fashion and discovered orgasms? Yeah, I remember that."
I flushed. This was the disadvantage of telling your best friend everything. “Well, that guy, he’s back.”
I could tell Priya dropped the phone because all I heard in the distance was, “What the fuck?”
She picked up the phone again. “Sorry. Dropped the phone. Okay, let me repeat. What the fuck?”
I laughed. “Yeah, exactly. The universe is conspiring against me.”
“Or mother earth herself knows my girl could use a good oh, oh, oh… ”
“Please stop.”
“I’m not wrong. When was the last time someone took you to pound town?”
“Do you have to say it like that?”
“Look, I’m just getting you ready now, because when I come to visit in a couple of days, you’ll get the full effect in person.”
I was really looking forward to her trip here. Hello! I guess she’d have to stay here in the penthouse. I didn’t really know how that was going to work. I would have to ask later.
“So, he works for a security firm here in New York. And when Dad decided I needed security—”
“Wait, why would your father think you need security?”
Yeah, so maybe I hadn’t exactly told her about what was going on yet. “Remember the boutique thing from last week?”
“You mean the reason we haven’t talked in two weeks? Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, some idiot tried to grab me off the street.”
“Oh my God. Way to bury the fucking lead.”
“Priya, I’m fine.”
“That does not sound fine. Did you sever his balls? Please tell me you severed his balls.”
“No, I did not. But I did hit him really good in the nose. There was blood everywhere.”
I could almost see Priya’s satisfied nod. “Yeah, that’s my girl.”
“Don’t be too proud of me. I basically forgot every single self-defense class I’ve ever taken in my life. I felt like one of those weak girls with flailing arms and screaming. Always screaming.”
“Hey, you got away. That’s all that matters.”
“I suppose so. Anyway, it freaked Dad out. And he said I needed to have security.”
“Yes, Papa Livingston. Protect our girl. And God, please tell me these security guys are hot!”
“How are we friends?”
“Because the goddess herself saw fit to bless you.”
“Me and the goddess are going to have to have a chat. Anyway, so Dad insisted, and then I’m at the security firm, and out walks the hottest Viking specimen I have ever seen in my life. Sure enough, it’s the guy from Vegas, and my whole body clenched because it went and remembered his touch.”
“Tell me more.” I could almost see Priya leaning forward toward the phone, trying to climb inside so she could get a better view of the story.
“There’s nothing more to tell. I turned tail and ran.”
“This story sucks.”
“I just— I don’t know. To see him again… and he acted like I should be happy to see him after the way he left me, and I just was so pissed I had to get out of there before I lost it.”
“My God, I love when Little Miss Spitfire comes out to play. You are so controlled 90 percent of the time. Good to see you lose it just a little.”
“When I lose it, bad things happen. Besides, I could tell it was what he wanted, for me to engage with him. So I didn’t. Sure as hell, he was pissed.”
“You know what? Maybe that’s not a bad tactic because that would just make him want to pursue.”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
I sighed. “Okay, so I didn’t want the security. But they insisted. Dad insisted. And then the Viking was put on my detail.”
“Yes, we’re back in bodyguard territory. Please tell me he’s a strong, silent type like Kevin Costner, and you are the fabulous diva type like Whitney Houston, and then there’s bang. Much bang.”
“No bang. Well, I just—I don’t want a repeat.”
“Yes, you do. If anyone could use some orgasms right now, it’s you. You are wound so tight.”
She was not wrong there.
“Orgasms do not fix everything.”
“Yes, they do. Okay look, you need this guy. First, apparently, you need protecting, which we’re going to discuss when I get there in ridiculous detail. But also, he’s the only one who has unlocked the orgasm code with you. You need to take that stick out of your ass and replace it with something much more fun.”
“Priya.”
“What? I’m just saying, a little anal wouldn’t hurt.” She cracked a laugh. “See what I did there?”
I flushed and covered my face as if she could see me. “What did I do to deserve you?”
She cackled. “Fine, forget the anal. I’m just saying. Let his stick do the thawing. Wherever you may like it. I m
ean, you almost married a guy who was physically incapable of providing you orgasms. Can you imagine what hell that would have been?”
Ugh, I groaned. After Oskar had left me in Vegas, I dated Steven Elk. At the time, he was VP of Operations. He’d been transferred to our Paris offices since then. He was nice. And dependable. And very decent. Your basic nice guy.
He was a nice guy.
The problem was every time we were in bed, I had zero orgasms. Mr. Eight Seconds, as Priya had dubbed him, was not the most adept at making me come. He didn’t liked to go down. And when we did have sex? Eight seconds. So the whole thing was just… God, miserable. And I’d been miserable because I couldn’t even talk about what was upsetting me or how I was feeling in the situation, so I eventually broke off the engagement. And weirdly, he had seemed confused by it.
“God, please don’t remind me.”
“All I’m saying is this guy seems to know how to make your body hum. So get you some orgasms and work out whatever scenario you guys have going on. Then when this is all over, you’ll be ready for someone new. You just need him to teach you the code, so you can teach someone else.”
“Unfortunately, I think the code is him. God, I just look at him and my whole body is humming and zipping. The problem is now he’s ignoring me.”
Anger seeped into her voice. “What do you mean, ignoring you?”
“I mean, more like avoiding me. We kissed the other night.”
“Woohoo! Yes, girl. Get some.”
“I wish. He kissed me and then stopped, and then he fed me some bullshit about how it was dangerous to be around him and he didn’t want to do that to me, and basically he left me horny and pulsing and unable to think about anything else, except his stupid lips. And now, he’s avoiding me. Straight-up avoidance.”
“That is a man that wants you so bad he doesn’t know what to do with himself.”
