Stolen Hearts: A Dark Billionaire Collection

by Elizabeth Knox

  “You can call me Logan, no reason for,” he made air quotes, “Mr. Steele.”

  “Jesus Christ.” I needed a bottle of vodka right about now. This had to be some kind of fucked up dream.

  “I looked over your proposal this morning, it’s very good.” He had a stack of paperwork in his arms, which was more than likely our proposal, flipping through the pages. “Your marketing plan is solid. I am surprised though; you can’t tell me that no one has offered you a deal.” Logan stopped flipping the paperwork, held it in his hands, and stared across at me.

  “We’ve had deals, a few of them. My problem is that they want to change the ingredients to cut costs, and I’m not okay with that.”

  “Why not?” He raised his eyebrow. “Why is it important to keep your ingredients?”

  “My line is all natural, no parabens, chemicals, cruelty free, you name it, if it’s not natural, I don’t have it. Other makeup lines tend to use chemicals in everything. Wherever a woman applies her makeup, it will be absorbed into her bloodstream, not only just into her pores. These chemicals can lead to many different cancers. The most common, is breast cancer.” Logan listened to my entire presentation, nodding with things I thought he agreed with. Ashley watched, assessing what I was saying, nodding her head in agreement. After about fifteen minutes, we all moved over to the seating area. Ashley and I were on the couch and Logan in the chair sitting across from us.

  “When’s your next modelling campaign?” He flipped through the paperwork, scanning through the pages.

  “In a few days.” I was lucky; my mom was a fierce woman, and she’d gotten Seb and I so many opportunities. When I was four, I started modelling for GUESS; Seb followed soon after that. We both appeared in all of their fall and spring campaigns, but I also did extra modelling work on the side. She planned for our futures, modelling as a child gave both Seb and I the resources to pay for college ourselves. I got my biochemistry degree, and Seb went for business.

  “I’ll get my lawyers to draw up the paperwork. Come back next Wednesday, and we’ll get started on the logistics of this arrangement.” Logan rose, and Ashley and I followed his lead. He shook Ashley’s hand.

  “Miss Mason, could I have a moment alone with Brooklyn?” Ashley nodded, leaving the office and shutting the door behind her.

  I was alone in a room with Logan. Logan Steele, actually. The weight that carried with the Steele name terrified me, and now that I knew who he was, being alone with such a prominent man was much scarier than it had been the night before, when I’d been screaming his name.

  “You disappeared on me this morning.” He sat the paperwork on the table by the couch, crossing his arms and staring at me.

  “I had a very important business meeting, and I thought you’d already left. The bed was empty.” I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe him.

  “Did you know who I was?” I asked. I wondered if he knew who I was at the bar last night.

  “Would it matter if I did?” He probably didn’t know, but what were the chances? Seriously, I had the worst fucking luck.

  I really wanted to know what he was thinking. “You didn’t agree to invest in my product because of last night, right?” I regretted asking it as soon as it came out of my mouth, but really, what if he had? Why would I ask that?

  He inched closer to me, placing his left hand on my hip, his right gliding against my cheek. It was surprising to me how comforting the gesture was. “You’re adorable. Last night was great, but not that great.” He chuckled at me, his thumb grazing against my cheekbone. He pressed his lips to mine, pulling my body against him, his erection pressing against my stomach. I shuddered.

  He pulled away suddenly, just as the door to his office opened. “Mr. Steele, you’re running late.” The Hispanic woman was back, waiting for Logan’s response.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” She nodded, closing the door behind her.

  As soon as the door shut, he was pinning me against the wall, his lips to my neck, biting down. It gave me flashbacks to last night, in the elevator.

  “Ah,” I groaned, his erection pressing firmly against me.

  “Dinner?” he mumbled. It was a bad idea. I shouldn’t go. Things were getting a lot more complicated now that he’d invested in my beauty line. We were business partners, and this could easily be ruined if we fell apart.

  When I didn’t respond, his lips came to mine, his hands over my breasts, tugging at my nipples.

  “Dinner,” he repeated, pulling away from my lips, his dark eyes staring into mine. It almost felt like a demand, no longer a question.

  “Fine.” He smiled at me as I said it, getting on his knees. He bunched my dress up over my hips, placing his mouth against my clit. “Logan, oh my God.” If this was my reward for saying yes to him, I’d be doing it way more often. Two of his fingers entered me, pumping in and out, my pussy clenching around him and beginning to moisten. I was miles beyond turned on. His tongue circled my clit, which began hardening under his attention. My hips started rolling, and his hands pressed me against the wall so I wouldn’t be able to move.

  “Oh fuck,” I moaned, his fingers going further into me, pressing against my G-spot. I came the moment he pressed against me, my breath came in heaving doses. He rose, straightening my dress out, and pressed his lips to mine. He pulled away “Tonight?”

  Shit, I couldn’t tonight. I really wanted to, I wanted to see what else he could do with that mouth. It was so tempting just to cancel my plans.

  “I can’t tonight,” I groaned as I said it, regretting it, I wanted to see him later.

  “Why?” His dark hazel eyes met mine, staring me up and down. I could cancel on Alfred, I totally could.

  “I’ll change my plans.” A flashy grin escaped him.

  “Good. Meet me at my place. 8 o’clock.” He walked away, opening the door and exiting the room.

  He’d left me there so worked up, my eyes glazed over and my dress wrinkled.

  Fuck. I walked out of his office to the elevators where Ashley was waiting for me, pressing all over her phone.

  “So?” she asked, glancing up at me momentarily.

  “So, what?”

  “So, I’m guessing you two made plans.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “I thought he was going to bend you over and fuck you while I was in there.” I smacked her on the shoulder as the elevator appeared, the cheeky grin never disappearing from her face.

  I decided it was time to face the music and call Alfred, to let him know that I needed to change my plans. Guilt stirred in my stomach, but I dialled his number anyway and waited for him to pick up “Alfred?” He answered the phone but hadn’t said a thing since, “Alfred?”

  “Yes, I’m here darling. How’d the meeting go?”

  “It went great, but I was actually calling to cancel tonight. Can we reschedule?” He sounded slightly let down. I hated doing this to him.

  “Yes”

  “When?”

  “Tonight, stop by the Hamilton on 3rd a little after 6. We’re having a charity event, just stop by for a bit. I haven’t seen you in a couple weeks. It’s either dinner for a few hours, or the charity event for a bit, your choice”

  I could say that Alfred didn’t know much about me, but he knew that I did not like to be with him for extended periods of time.

  “Okay, I’ll see you later, then.” I wondered what the charity event could be for, but I decided to go along with it anyway.

  “Brooklyn, wear something pink.”

  “Okay, fine. See you after 6.” I hung up the call, preparing for my stress reducing run through the park.

  I surely needed it after the day I’d had, and it was barely past noon.

  Chapter Five

  Logan

  The day was filled with meetings, meeting after meeting. I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I kept getting distracted by the taste of her on my lips and how she’d felt against my tongue, how I could just barely see the mark
s I’d left all over her neck. I had to take an early break because of that little minx. I should’ve fucked her again in my office, bent her over my desk and made her scream right then. Instead, I was a gentleman and gave her an orgasm. I was not a selfless man, not by any means, but this morning, I was. Even just tasting her got me hard in no time. It was almost painful by the time she left my office.

  Now I was sitting in the middle of a conference call, not paying a lick of attention to who was saying what. I was thinking about fucking Brooklyn senseless and how hot she sounded when she was moaning my name before, how her ass jiggled as I fucked her as hard as I could. I could imagine fucking her without a condom, too—I was throbbing at the thought of spilling deep inside her. I’d plug her up after, too, to make sure she’d be feeling me inside her for days. I would, fuck her senseless, that is.

  I was saved from the damn conference call when my brothers both burst through the door of my office. Whatever they had to say was much more important than the people droning on the other side of the line. “I am sorry, but something has come up. We will reschedule.” I didn’t wait for an answer, just hung up. It really wasn’t outside of my norm to piss someone off like that anyway.

  “What can I help you boys with?” I asked, trying not to let on what my mind had been on.

  “We want to know about the shipment that was intercepted by the feds, Lo,” Christian inquired, both of them looking to me to answers I didn’t have. I knew a little more than they did considering I ran the company. I had also had Reggie look into what I could. Suspicions were mostly what I got out of it; nothing more. Though, I wasn’t usually wrong about things. Call me cocky, but my intuition was spot on.

  “The raid was actually from the DEA, which is not surprising, considering the people we have dealt with in the past. Father wasn’t as careful as we have been, and I am sure his actions alone got the company looked at a few times. I have been able to clean up a lot of what we do, including ties with Rafael Ramirez. I don’t know much, but I have a theory that he is involved,” I admitted to them, standing up with my hands in my pockets and my fingers thoughtfully at my bottom lip. My brother, Jordan, had the same habit when he was thinking through what he was saying.

  “You mean the Mexican cartel had something to do with outing us?” Jordan asked, sliding into a seat, looking stupefied by the idea.

  “It’s just a theory,” I told them, not wanting them to go after anyone just yet. It would only make things worse. “Recently, we stopped doing business with Rafael because he was getting too sloppy, attracting too much attention from the feds. It wasn’t good for the business or us, but Rafael knew the process we used by heart. We loaded up tractor trailers and shipped them that way, using the same specific trucking company every time. It was a reliable routine, but it seems that Rafael knew too much; how to get to the company Ariba. I would not be surprised if Rafael had someone call in a tip as a way to get back at me for ending our business relationship. He is not the kind of man to like those things. He doesn’t like being cut off. I had no choice, though.”

  Jordan was nodding along with me, taking it all in. He had met Rafael once or twice and knew the man had no kindness in his heart. “I think you could be right. It means we need to start changing up the way we do things.”

  I knew Jordan was right and had already planned on that, but I didn’t like change, especially when it involved going with a different arms dealer entirely; one I did not like the reputation of. It meant that I had to use Sergei Kolosov. There were two problems with that; one, my competitors almost all used him. It would mean more animosity between the Steeles and those competing with us. The other problem was that Sergei was a known monster. There was no other way to describe the man. But with Rafael being the slimy fuck that he is, I have no other choice.

  “I know. We’re going to be in business with Sergei Kolosov.”

  Christian’s eyes went wide, and I couldn’t blame the look of fear in them. I didn’t like dealing with the dangerous ones if I had a chance. Rafael was nothing compared to Sergei. He was Russian, but not affiliated with the Mob at all. He had no affiliation with the clans who fought over the U.S territory. At least it would temporarily keep us out of that drama. Mexico, Russia, Romania, and Ireland had a longstanding war with each other that spanned decades. It was too much of a mess to get all tangled in by using one of them for anything. “You know what he does to women,” Christian said, looking between us like we might change our minds. I knew what he was talking about.

  “It doesn’t matter. There is no choice,” I told them. It didn’t matter what I’d thought of Sergei, or his specific ways of conducting business. I had clients who needed their guns, guns I can’t provide without having the stability of an arms dealer. Unfortunately, now I have to do business with the devil himself.

  A knock came to the door, Esmerelda, my assistant, and practically my mother. The short, middle aged, Hispanic woman was my favorite. She had a motherly aura about her, and I loved it. I’d stolen her from my father’s team before he passed – he was furious, but understood why I’d want someone as trustworthy as Esme on my team. Plus, she brought in empanadas. “Mr. Logan, you better get going. You’ll be late.”

  “Thanks, Esme.” She walked back out of the office to her station. I’d better get this over with; I knew I’d be counting the hours down until I was able to see Brooklyn again. Now that I had her in my grasps, I definitely wasn’t letting go anytime soon. She was mine, even if she didn’t know it yet.

  Chapter Six

  Brooklyn

  Wear pink; the comment kept going through my mind. I’d been in front of this closet for at least thirty minutes, or maybe more, no doubt. I pulled out an asymmetrical, off the shoulder dress that stopped just below my ass. It was sexy enough for my impending date, but it didn’t seem as slutty as some of the other pink options I had in my ever-growing closet. I gazed through my closet, looking for a good shoe and clutch pairing, finding a pair of rose gold strappy heels with a matching clutch in a similar shade of pink.

  I was off to this charity event, and I kept wondering what it was for. Alfred wasn’t normally that vague when we spoke.

  “Hey, bro.” I spotted Seb coming out of his room, decked out in a tux. “Are we going to the same place?” Seeing as Alfred decided to invite me, I had a feeling he would’ve extended that invitation to Sebastian as well.

  “Al called me earlier, so yeah, I’m betting we are.” Alfred has been very generous to Seb, since he ‘found out’ about me, embraced me, I didn’t really know what to call it. When Alfred entered my life, he also entered Seb’s, creating opportunities for him, giving him a good job that paid extremely well for someone as young as he was. At 22, Seb had it good, almost making 300K a year.

  “Did he tell you what kind of event this is?” Seb watched me as I asked him the question, grinning a little bit.

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  Seb tossed his suit jacket over his arm, walking towards the door. “Seb! What didn’t Alfred tell me?” I was starting to get anxious now. This was starting to feel more and more like some kind of surprise.

  “Oh no, you can see when we get there.” He grabbed my hand, and we went down to the parking garage, slipping into Seb’s red Audi R8. “I noticed you didn’t come home last night.” He shot me a questioning glance, “Once Elise was drunk, she told me how you wanted to fuck that guy at the bar.”

  “Okay, One- I did not want to fuck him. Elise told me I needed to fuck him.” He scoffed at my response, almost seeming like he didn’t believe me.

  “You needed to fuck him? Seriously?”

  “Seb, why the fuck are you talking to me about this? Do you really want to know who I’m fucking on a regular basis?” I shot him a glare. There were two things I didn’t like talking to Seb about; my sexual partners, and my cocaine addiction; two things he always seemed keen to bring up when I was around.

  “I should ask just because o
f last time,” he hissed, gripping his hand further on the stick shift.

  Ouch. That hurt. There were a lot of things about my last relationship that were super fucked up. Nothing about it was normal. I’d spent years with Bryce. We’d known each other since we were both kids. He’d gotten us both addicted to cocaine, only now, it was him that was still addicted, stuck in a downward spiral. Alfred sent me to rehab a year ago, and I’d been clean for six months. My sobriety is the most important thing in my life, and Bryce coming up to me at Mason’s last night…well, let’s just say that was a test to see how strong I could be. There would’ve been a time where I would have followed him like a lost puppy, snorted that coke and been in the best high of my life. Today? I’m not that Brooklyn anymore.

  “Fuck you,” I snapped out at him. I couldn’t even look at him right now. My brother was supposed to be my supporter. He was supposed to pick me up when I was feeling down. He had the same guidelines for me as being his sister as him being my brother. But he was just so good at bringing up my past mistakes.

  He flew through Atlanta until we were on 3rd, right in front of the Hamilton. The large building gave me a sense of Deja vu to where I had been earlier that morning. A valet came to my side of the car first, opening the door. I strode out into the building, but not before noticing the seal plastered all over the backdrop of the red carpet ‘The Ellis Harper Foundation’. What was going on? Why was my mom’s name everywhere? I walked into the hotel lobby, the entire place completely transformed with sheets of white, black, pink, and gold. It was elegant, beautiful. Again, I spotted Mom’s name everywhere, on shirts, tablecloths, bottles of water, everything.

  I glanced around the room, looking for Alfred. I scanned and scanned but didn’t see him. Instead, I saw a friendly face I knew all too well by now. He met my gaze and smirked. What was he doing here?