“No!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, dammit.”
“Don’t you curse at me. I’m only making the right decision for the both of us.” She went to the door of the office and opened it.
Lawrence, Desmond, and Simon almost fell in. Phoebe gave his friends and her office assistant an exasperated look before turning back to Jacoby to say, “This conversation is over with, Mr. Knight. Don’t try to contact me. There are no strings attached to our business.” She took the papers from Desmond and snatched the pen from behind Simon’s ear.
Looking at Lawrence and Desmond as she handed the papers back, she said, “Thank you for your service, Mr. Ripley. Madeline is grateful to have you as a source for our computer needs.”
“We’re glad to be your source, Ms. Green,” Desmond said highly amused.
She moved past them and went to her office not giving Jacoby another look.
Desmond asked Jacoby, “Does she know who you are?”
Jacoby walked angrily past them and went to the elevators. Lawrence and Desmond followed soon after.
“So that’s it. You’re not going to find out more about her?” Desmond inquired.
“No. She said she had no intentions of contacting me.” Jacoby pulled the hotel stationary that had her number on it out his pocket and ripped it in little pieces.
“Does that mean you have no interest in her?” Desmond asked.
“It means she doesn’t want anything to do with me or weren’t you all listening at the door?” he snipped, tossing the shred of papers in the nearest garbage container.
Desmond nudged Lawrence. “Hey, now she’s free game Lawrence.”
“I don’t want used goods,” Lawrence said nonchalantly.
“Used goods never stopped you before,” Jacoby bit out.
“This is different. Now that I know the kind of person she really is I’m not interested.”
“That’s a load of shit and you know it,” Jacoby spat just as the elevator doors opened.
It was a good thing the car was empty. They all stepped inside and Jacoby waited until the doors closed to finish what he had to say. “You have no idea the kind of person she is. You couldn’t handle her even if you had her.”
“Are you speaking about yourself?” Lawrence asked amused.
Jacoby shoved him against the wall he was so angry. Lawrence shoved back. First were about to follow, but Desmond tore them apart pushing them on either side of the elevators.
“This is crazy. She’s just some girl. The both of you are acting like she’s the last girl on earth.”
“Shut up, Desmond!” Lawrence and Jacoby sneered.
Desmond sighed confused. “Look, let’s just get back to Lansing in a professional matter, before we kill each other.”
“Fine with me, as long as that ass don’t say shit to me,” Jacoby growled.
“Same goes here,” Lawrence hissed.
Chapter 10
As soon as the door to her office was closed and locked, Phoebe leaned on the back of the door to catch her breath and get control of herself. She was shaking all over felling hot and cold at the same time, but either way there was the flush of tingles in every part of her body.
The urge to make love to him again was quite powerful, but she fought it with all her will. She couldn’t allow herself to give in to the pleasure he could give her or she was sure she would lose her heart to him. No, she had to find someone she was clearly indifferent to because she needed to have control.
Jacoby clearly had an aura about him that she was drawn too and she was terrified he would be another Daniel.
A soft knock at her door sent her heart racing again thinking it was Jacoby, but then Simon’s voice came across.
“They’re gone. I just saw their limousine leave. You can come out now.”
She opened the door partially and looked at him with narrowed eyes.He looked as if he were about to burst out laughing. “Shut up,” she snapped, coming out the office completely turning off her light.
“You slept with him?”
“That’s none of your business and if you know what’s good for you Simon, you should keep your business to yourself.”
Simon giggled wickedly. “Then I shouldn’t tell you the juicy gossip, Latrice told me.”
Latrice was Madeline’s assistant in Lansing. Simon and Latrice were constantly on the phone with each other gossiping back and forth about each office's going-ons. Latrice knew all of Madeline’s personal business and loved telling Simon about it. Simon could keep a secret if you made sure you told him it was a secret, but he often shared some of Latrice’s information with Phoebe even though she didn’t want anything to do with office gossip.
Yet the way Simon was giggling, she knew it was something she should pay attention to. “What Simon?” They walked out the office together and he locked up as she pushed the elevator button.
He came over to her and leaned real close to her with a devilish glint in his pretty green eyes. “Remember a couple of months ago, Latrice said Madeline’s got herself a love slave and it’s a friend of one of our suppliers?”
Her face became a frightful gray.
He continued on taking her silence as not remembering what he told her. “Remember when Madeline got drunk at the Christmas party and was telling us how she got her bootie calls with a tall dark man. How she would just call him up and he’d come over and do her, then leave. They wouldn’t talk. Just do it. He was like her love slave. Remember?” Simon finally looked at her as the doors opened and she didn’t step in. He then realized her silence was because she didn’t remember. Her silence was horror. Horror at knowing exactly what Simon was going to say.
“It was him?” she asked in a tiny voice.
He nodded confirmation.
“How do you know?”
He spoke as if she should know this already. “Latrice has sent me photos of him coming and going into the Lansing office from her phone. I recognized him the moment he stepped foot in here yesterday, but I was surprised he returned today.”
Phoebe felt so sick to her stomach, she ran to the bathroom to relieve what little contents she had inside.
Chapter 11
His phone was blowing up. Madeline had called Jacoby five times since he had come into town.
Desmond was probably the one who alerted her that they were back in town. He was usually the one who spoke with the clientele for Lawrence.
Jacoby finally answered her call a little after midnight picking up the receiver with a quiet, “Hello.”
“How was Detroit?” Madeline asked quietly.
“Same as before,” he answered.
“Were you busy? Because I wasn’t.”
“No.”
There was a long pause at this point. Usually when she asked this question, he would say, “I’ll be right over.” This time was different. His body wasn’t into going over there tonight.
Madeline took the initiative and said, “Why don’t you come over and join me for a little fun?”
There was another long pause, before he said, “I’m tired. I would be useless, tonight, Madeline.”
“You won’t have to do any work. Just lie back and let me take care of you.”
Again more silence before he said, “No thanks. I’ll call you later.” He hung up and tossed the phone over on the couch not bothering to replace it on the base and then he went to bed after a long cold shower. He was hornier than a dog in heat, but Madeline couldn’t satisfy his desires about now. No one could, except Phoebe.
He cursed to himself.
About thirty minutes later, Lawrence called. “I just got a call from Madeline,” was the first sentence out his mouth.
“Yeah?” Jacoby asked, with a matter of fact tone of voice. “It is kind of late for clientele to be calling you, isn’t it?”
“She was calling to discuss how things went in Detroit. She wanted to know if the upgrade went okay.” There was silence on the line for a moment. Lawrence
continued, “I told her it went great.” A pregnant silence and then Lawrence said, “She asked about you.” Jacoby didn’t respond. “She asked me how were you and how did things go for you in Detroit?”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her things went great. Everything was fine.”
Jacoby cursed under his breath. “Do you think Desmond opened his big mouth about the incident?”
“No, but who’s to say that office assistant want. He looks like a faggot gossiper if you ask me,” Lawrence sneered.
Again Jacoby cursed. “She’s going to get fired you know if Madeline finds out.”
“What make you think Madeline doesn’t mind sharing?”
“She doesn’t. There’s no strings attached, but I think she will take an exception to the rule when it’s her own office manager. I don’t give a shit at how good Phoebe is at running her office, she won’t like it that I’m fucking her too.”
“It was only one time,” Lawrence said. “I think you’re making a big thing out of nothing.”
“I don’t think I am,” Jacoby said very concerned now over Phoebe. “I should drive down there tomorrow and tell her about Madeline and I.”
“Why? What does she need to know about it?”
“Because I think she should.”
“Are you listening to yourself, Jacoby? The girl doesn’t want anything to do with you. I know this is hard to believe, but why should she care on whether you were intimate with her boss? You’ll spread unnecessary business around the office and she’ll hate you more.”
Jacoby had to admit Lawrence made a little sense.
“Do you think allowing Phoebe to know this information is going to make things better between the two of you?” Lawrence questioned.
“I just need to see her and let her know.”
“If it’s so important for her to know, why don’t I tell her? Madeline mentioned she needed me to go down tomorrow and supervise the installation at her new apartment in Detroit.”
“Madeline is moving to Detroit?”
“Sure. She getting a lot of clientele that would make it easier for her to work in the city and do business in the city. Why shouldn’t she move to Detroit? You and I will,” he pointed out. “In any case, when we spoke tonight she asked me to go down tomorrow and personally supervise the installation then setup some things.”
“You usually send a technician for things like that,” Jacoby pointed out suspiciously.
“Yes, but she asked me to address it with my personal attention and I want to make her happy because when it’s time for us to having lunch with the rich and powerful we both have to remember Madeline made it all possible.”
Jacoby had a feeling that last statement was meant more for him than for Lawrence sake. It was true Madeline had gotten Jacoby and Lawrence many appointments with a lot of their clientele and had swung a lot of business their way. Lawrence was really trying to say, “don’t fuck up with the goods for a little piece of pussy.”
“I’ll speak with Phoebe,” he said to Lawrence. “I want to tell her myself about Madeline if she doesn’t know already, but I won’t be able to get down there until Sunday.”
“I’ll stick around and you can tell me how it goes. I’ll be staying in Madeline’s apartments on the river.”
“I’ll call you when I get in town.” He really didn’t want to speak with Lawrence anymore about Phoebe. He truly felt Lawrence had his own hidden agenda, but he didn’t want to even think about what it could be. “Talk to you later, man.”
Hanging up, he stared up at the ceiling wondering how was he going to let Phoebe know that he and Madeline were lovers.
****
Phoebe had come home and immediately went to her room. Patricia probably assumed her daughter had a hard day at work and needed a few minutes alone, but when Phoebe didn’t come out after dinner, she knew her mother was going to start to worry.
Patricia came in the room to see Phoebe buried under the covers in her bed. Her clothes were thrown around the room and the lights were out. “Phoebe, what in the name is wrong with you?”
“I’m exhausted, Mother,” Phoebe mumbled under the covers. “Can you put the kids to bed tonight? I’m so tired I can’t move a muscle.” In truth, she had just finished throwing up once again just from thinking about what she had done.
“Of course. I figured you would be. I don’t see why you just didn’t call out today and stayed at home for some rest.”
Phoebe peaked over the covers at her mother. “You know I only use my sick days for the kids.”
“Well, I need to speak with you about an important matter that happened at the bank this afternoon.” Patricia said sitting on the bed next to Phoebe.
“What’s wrong?” Phoebe asked.
“They posted a debit to our account of a thousand dollars. I let them know it was a mistake.”
Phoebe sat up abruptly. “What?! Why’d you tell them that?”
“Because neither one of us had that kind of money to put in the account and you know I’m an honest woman just as I have raised you to be. I wasn’t going to use money that wasn’t mine, Phoebe.”
Groaning in misery, Phoebe said, “It was yours, Mother. I put it in there this morning.”
“Where did you get money like that from?” Patricia demanded to know.
She took a breath to prepare for the lie she was about to tell. “It’s a loan from an old friend. Let’s just leave it at that, but now we can just pay some of the taxes and don’t you worry about paying it back. I’ll figure something out for them and I have as long as I want to pay it back.”
“You shouldn’t have done that Phoebe. I’ll help you,” Patricia insisted.
She shook her head. “No Mother. I won’t have you give me a dime. What you do around the house and for the kids is worth its weight in gold. I have plenty of time to return the money so I don’t want you to worry about.”
Patricia kissed her daughter’s cheek and gave her a big hug. “I’ve got sandwich and soup on the stove. Get some rest and we’ll talk more later. I’ll straighten things out at the bank about the overage.”
“Thank you, Momma,” she said gratefully laying back down very blessed to have a mother like Patricia who was so understanding, although she had a feeling Patricia didn’t believe her story about the loan, but Phoebe knew her mother wouldn’t press the subject. Patricia would give Phoebe time to come out with the truth eventually.
Phoebe just didn’t know when she would be able to tell her mother the truth. Closing her eyes, she felt the vile deep in her belly rumble and she knew in a moment she would be making another trip to the bathroom to throw up what was left in her stomach. Her thoughts went back to all those late nights with Madeline at the office. Madeline would tell her about the wonderful lover she had and how he could make love all night long, satisfying all of Madeline’s needs. Once Madeline had even joked Phoebe could borrow him to relieve some of the stress in her life.
Well, Phoebe had certainly taken Madeline up on that offer. Her stomach rumbled in displeasure and she knew the only reason she was sick to her stomach was not because she had a very wonderful night with Jacoby Knight. The truth was that Phoebe couldn’t believe she had slept with Madeline’s lover and the worst part was she wanted to do it again.
Covering her mouth to avoid a mess, Phoebe rushed to the bathroom again before she let it out on the floor.
Chapter 12
Arriving into work extra early, Phoebe was able to get a lot of paperwork done. Simon arrived at his usual time and she went straight into his office to speak with him privately. With a serious nature about her, she immediately got to the point.
“I know you’re the town crier about the office, but I would appreciate you keeping that little incident that happened yesterday to yourself.”
Simon nodded. “I won’t if you tell me all the details. Did he really offer money to you for sex?”
Her eyes narrowed. They had been listening at the do
or. “Yes, and you know the debt I’m in. How could I refuse almost three thousand dollars?”
“Hell with that kind of loot, he could have had all the women in Cass corridor.”
“Well we did do it twice,” she admitted.
Simon gasped.
“But I didn’t accept it al. Not even half because my conscious was bothering me about even accepting anything.” Phoebe continued offhandedly. “He wanted to do it again, but it was four in the morning. I couldn’t be away from the twins another moment.”
“Damn girl. You could have paid off yours and mine if you had stayed there any longer and gotten every dime from him.”
She chuckled a bit relaxed now that she had someone to share the moment with. “It was great Simon, but it won’t happen again, especially now that I know who he really is.”
“But you said it was great. Don’t you want it again?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to get emotionally involved. I don’t want to get hurt like I did with Daniel,” she said.
Simon smacked his lips. “He’s not Daniel, Phoebe.”
“Yeah, I know, but he makes me feel too much and I can’t handle that. I can’t be in control when he’s around. You saw me yesterday. I looked like a scared deer in the headlights when I saw him.”
“It could have been just shocked.”
“No Simon. I lose myself to him. He’s just that good and it’s not just his lovemaking I’m attracted to. It’s just something about him draws me to him.”
“So you won’t be dating or seeing anyone.”
“I’ll find a man I’m physically attracted to only. I don’t want the emotional luggage I get. No man’s going to break my heart again,” she said determinedly.
“When do you think you’ll ever get over Daniel?” Simon asked seriously.
“When I feel like I don’t have to worry about the man I’m with breaking my heart and when I know he’ll be a good father to the kids. He’ll love them like they are his own.”
Deceptive Nights Page 6
