Stolen Hearts: A Dark Billionaire Collection

by Elizabeth Knox

  From my time with Mumbe I can see she’s having difficulty progressing her relationships in a sexual manner due to her mutilation. But more than that, she’s an extremely passionate woman who doesn’t condone the actions of her elders. At the end of our session I suggested she reach out to activist groups to see how she can volunteer and help others. Although, I did give her homework.

  She recently went out on a date with a man named Will. From what she says he’s the entire picture, but like she always does she shied away once he had kissed her. She’s been ghosting him, not responding to messages. Her homework is to see Will and express why she ghosted him. I even told her she could bring him to our next session if she thinks it would be easier. It’s obvious she wants to explore things with Will but is fearful she’ll be rejected because of what was done to her.

  I close the notebook I take client notes down in, open my drawer and shut it. Scanning my eyes around my small but cozy office I smile. The scents of lavender and eucalyptus float through the air, causing the room to be even more relaxing. The walls are painted a deep, yet dull blue. It reminds me of the color the sky turns before it begins raining. I’ve found blue is quite comforting, which is why I chose it.

  A gray couch with yellow pillows sits against the wall to the right and to the left I have two upholstered chairs with the same gray color. If I look straight out I can see a beautiful view of the city, and on the remaining wall is where my desk is, next to the door where clients come into my office. I rent out a shared office unit where we all operate much like a salon does. Typically, hair stylists rent out a chair for the month, or an extended term. It’s the same process here.

  It’s a little after ten p.m. on a Friday night. I typically work in my office from seven to nine with clients on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. During the day I work eight to four at Steele Enterprises as Christian’s executive assistant. No one knows about my side gig, or how I practice sex therapy. They know I graduated with my Masters in Psychology and have a couple of certifications but I never dove deeper into that with them. I have a great set up at Steele Enterprises and will never let them down, but therapy is in my heart and soul.

  I shut my Bluetooth connection off and Beethoven stops playing through the speakers of my office. I venture over to the built-in cabinets behind my desk and open the left side. This is where I keep extra clothes for anytime I have to run out after work . . . which is pretty typical. You never know when you’ll have to attend a work event when you work for the Steeles.

  I disrobe out of the stuffy clothes I’ve been in all day and slide on my new dress and keep on the same pair of heels I’ve worn all day, head out the door and walk down the block to Christian’s club, Illusion.

  I’ve been fortunate in the fact no one has ever seen me around this part of town. Christian caught me one time but I told him I was meeting with a friend for coffee. Under the offices there’s a coffee shop, so my lie worked perfectly. I doubt the Steeles would care about what I do, but my abuela would lose her shit. She’s a devout Catholic and I can only imagine the earful I’d hear from her. This is also the woman who has no idea I have two complete sleeves of tattoos. I’m always wearing long sleeve blouses or dresses. She writes it off as being conservative, but in reality I don’t want to get my hide skinned.

  As I walk up the block I’m careful to go a bit slower than usual. My dress is a thick material, except the sleeves feel a bit off. They’re much lighter for some reason which has me a tad bit worried. I bought this online from one of those boutiques, figured I’d try them out since it seemed to be a good deal. I can see now they cheaped out on the job, or the dresses had issues and that’s why they were only selling them for twenty-five bucks. The dress is a full-length black number that spans down from my shoulders all the way to my ankles. A sexy slit in the right leg goes all the way up to the top of my thigh and I have tape keeping it in place so no one gets a good look at my cooch.

  I placed a thin silver belt around the center of my stomach to give me an hourglass illusion and put on a pair of dangling silver hoops to accent the belt. My makeup is exactly the same as it is every day, except for the newly added blood red lipstick and thicker eyeliner.

  Illusion had an accident a couple weeks back and had shut down while there needed to be obvious renovations. In true Steele style Christian made sure it got done as quickly as it could and somehow marketed this evening as a grand re-opening, adding a series of A-list names to the invites. It’s his first big night out since Selena gave birth to their twins, Gianna and Reagan a week ago.

  I think he’s insane for leaving his wife with two newborns, but from what I heard earlier Brooklyn is going to help her this evening. I can see the red carpet from a bit away and start to walk over to it but am stopped when the bouncers stop anyone from entering because a town car pulls up.

  The door opens and I lose my breath at the sight of him. His beard is perfectly groomed, he’s wearing a dark navy satin suit with a paisley vest underneath and silver cufflinks make his look complete.

  I purposefully steer clear of Jordan Steele because every time I see him, I think about what could’ve happened between us. We had one night of sin, pleasure and companionship. It was enough to make me crave him more than any drug. But Jordan ruined me, wrecked me for any other man. I’ve done one hell of a job avoiding him. However, there’s no avoiding him tonight. Especially as his eyes lock on mine and he extends a hand out to me.

  Chapter Two

  You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending

  ~ C. S. Lewis

  Jordan

  Lacey stands there blinking her eyes like a deer caught in headlights while I’m waiting for her to take my hand. The bouncer on her side of the carpet unhooks the velvet rope to allow her entry. Yet still she stands here, batting her eyes.

  “Lace.” My tone comes out a tad bit warningly, although I’d say it’s more urging. No man wants to look like an idiot, as if he’s being turned down, especially one who has cameras on him constantly and is in a very public setting. Fuck, maybe this is my own fault for offering my hand. I saw her in this dress and couldn’t help myself. It made me want her on my arm and in plenty of other places too. I hoped calling her by her nickname would cause her to get out of her daze.

  Lacey places her hand within my own and I smirk, finally able to breathe. “You look breathtaking. I figured you’d appreciate an escort into the party.” I ensure my voice comes out smooth and husky, just the way she likes it.

  She snickers, avoiding eye contact with me and the two of us walk down the carpet into my brother’s club. Illusion has had quite a bit of renovations done in the last couple of weeks. It’s entirely more extravagant than before, almost acting as a VIP access, members only club. Christian told me a few ideas he had for the club, but we haven’t gone into specifics.

  Lacey pulls her hand from mine quickly as soon as we’re inside Illusion. I turn my neck to look at her and see she’s already walking away from me, off toward Logan and Christian at my brother’s typical booth. It sits up in the VIP section, above the dance floor.

  I notice a bottle girl is replaced with a woman in a gold dress. It’s sexy, yet conservative at the same time. She’s currently serving my brothers and stands next to their booth when she witnesses Lacey approaching. Even as I make my way up the stairwell and come up to the booth she waits.

  Lacey takes a seat next to Christian and I sit beside Logan, I’m positioned directly across from her. I want to be blunt and ask why she ran off like a scared little girl, but I bite my tongue. This isn’t the time nor the place.

  The waitress takes my drink order and finally leaves us to chat amongst ourselves. “Am I losing my mind or did the two of you walk in together?” Christian asks, speaking to Lacey.

  I remain quiet, wanting to hear whatever she’ll respond with. “Your eyes are fine. Jordan offered to escort me in. Wasn’t that kind of him?” I may be reading into things a
little too much, but from the sounds of it she’s annoyed with me. I catch her rolling her eyes at me. Yep, looks like she is mad.

  “What’s going on with you, Lace?” Logan asks. Only those of us who are close to her call her by that name. Anyone outside of the Steele family or her grandmother it’s off limits to.

  “Oh, I don’t know. Just the countless paparazzi outside the club have me wondering what kind of story they’re going to tell.” She grumbles.

  “You’ve worked for the family for a while now. Surely you understand dealing with the press is part of your job and ultimately unavoidable.” I’m not nice at all with my choice of words. She doesn’t get to act offended by the fact paparazzi are constantly floating around the family. She knows how much they follow us, getting in every nook and cranny they can fit in to snap the right photo.

  “Oh, I know Jordan. I was trying not to walk the carpet and get in through the side entrance. Christian gave me the code.”

  Christian nods, confirming without saying a thing.

  Raising my brows, “I apologize. I didn’t realize avoiding the media was so important to you.” Now I’m wondering why it’s so fucking important all of a sudden.

  “Unbelievable. You aren’t genuine in the slightest.” Lacey hisses at me. Shit, this is becoming tense pretty quick. Logan looks highly uncomfortable while Christian is staring between the two of us.

  “Did you two pick back up your thing?” Fuck. Christian! Shut the fuck up! Fuck. Lacey doesn’t know everyone knows we had a one night stand all those years ago. Last year at Christmas I had to address it after my business was publicly aired to the rest of the family. I really hope she didn’t hear what he just said, but I never get so lucky.

  “What did you just say?” Lacey asks, keeping her mouth open as her eyes dart from Christian to me.

  “I’m asking if you two are fucking again, Lace. We all know what happened before you went to college.”

  “No, we’re not fucking. Why would I be fucking your brother?” Lacey’s voice comes out sloppy and stammering. She’s a fucking bad liar. Always has been and always will be.

  “Mr. Steele, here’s your drink.” The woman in the gold dress comes back, leaning down more than she needs to giving me an ample look at her breasts. She lingers for just a moment too long, when Lacey huffs.

  “It would be dumb of me to throw myself at your brother again when so many bitches like this one do shit like this.” Now Lacey has never shocked me, until right now. There was a time where she’d hold back her thoughts out of fear she’d hurt someone’s feelings . . . but not tonight.

  The waitress gives the rest of the drinks to my brothers but walks around the booth to Lacey and starts to hand it over but ends up pouring it over her.

  “Cleo, get the fuck out. You’re fired. Don’t you ever come back here.” Christian snarls, grabbing a cloth napkin from the table, he hands it to Lacey, trying to be helpful.

  Cleo struts off with a smirk that makes me think she needs to get her ass beat and fucked. If this were any other time I might follow a bitch like that and give her the honor of slamming my hand against the cheeks of her ass until they turned a bright blood red, then fuck her until she begged me to let her cum.

  She isn’t the one I’m concerned about right now. No, that’s the woman sitting across from me. “Are you alright? Is there anything I can do?” I ask.

  Lacey looks up to me with anger filled eyes. “Jordan, you’ve done enough. Actually, you’ve done more than enough. How the fuck could you tell them about . . . fuck this. I’m so sorry Lo’, Chris. I’m so sorry, but I need to go.” She shoots up from her seat and runs off in her heels toward the back of the VIP section. There’s a stairwell that leads down throughout the entire building but it’s only accessed by a code. From the looks of it she knows the same code that allows the Steele family in through the back entrance will work on this door too.

  “What the hell is going on between you two?” Logan growls.

  He views Lacey like his little sister. I can’t relate. I could never relate to that, not after the things I’ve done to her. “My bet it’s sexual frustration.” Christian cackles out his reply.

  I ignore my brothers, stand up and head after her. She’s in a pair of heels so she couldn’t have gotten too far. After I punch in the code I stand on the other side and listen for the sounds of heels clacking against the cement. Peering over the railing I see she’s maybe two floors under me, so I call out her name and rush down, catching up with her rather quickly. “What the hell is stuck up your ass?!”

  Lacey stops right in her tracks, turns toward me, whips her hand back and slams her palm right against my flesh. I don’t think I’ve realized what’s happened until she holds her hand to her chest in an agonizing way. “Fuck, are you alright?”

  “You don’t get to do that, or this.”

  “Do what exactly?” I question.

  “Act like you care. Fuck, Jordan. You told your entire family about us and—”

  “That isn’t how it happened, Lace.”

  “I really don’t fucking care how it happened. That summer was supposed to be ours, what we did that night was supposed to be between us. It wasn’t supposed to be tarnished or made to be a mockery of something.”

  I’m blown away by what’s coming out of her mouth. It sure sounds like our one-night stand and the close bond we forged ten years ago meant something more to her. Something that I would’ve killed to know. “I’ve never said this to you before, but please allow me to say it now. The summer we spent together was the best summer of my life. It was unexpected and downright frightening but I will never downplay the joy that I felt, amongst the other things . . . I felt.”

  Lacey huffs, “Even when you’re attempting to be romantic you’re still an asshole. How is that even possible?”

  “I am a Steele, babe.”

  “Cocky fucks.”

  “If only Esme could hear that mouth of yours right now.”

  “Go choke on a rock.”

  “You don’t want me to choke.” I retort.

  “Fine, you’re right. I don’t. I’m just pissed.” She admits.

  “I know. Your anger has always been one of the things I’ve admired about you. That fiery passion running through your veins.”

  “If we were vampires that might be a cute pick up line.”

  “Ow, did I just get burned by sweet Miss Lacey?”

  “There’s nothing sweet about me, Jordan. You’d know that if you didn’t just vanish like you did after . . .”

  Fuck. She’s going to bring this up right now? “I’m sorry.”

  “It takes ten fucking years to get an apology out of you? This is the most twisted joke ever. I cannot believe—” I take two steps closer to Lace and shove my lips down onto hers. She needs to shut up and just let this happen. This moment that I know we’ve both wanted for years. Neither of us could ever deny the connection we had, even if I fought it tooth and nail. Everyone else in my family has found love and it’s turning me into this envious beast.

  I tossed the potential of love aside with Lacey and became a fuckboy just like Christian for such a long time. I tried to forget the memory of Lacey but I couldn’t. No woman has ever compared to her. Snaking my hand around her back I pull her closer to me, kissing her like the man I’ve become. Ferocious. Fueled. Powerful. There’s no more taking it slow with her anymore. She’s grown up now and . . . fuck, I’m knocked straight out of my thoughts as her hand strikes my face again.

  “What the fuck!?”

  “Haven’t you ever heard of consent, douchebag?” Lacey snaps.

  “Stand here right now and tell me you don’t want me.” I order, staring into those dark orbs of hers waiting for the silence to consume us both.

  Just as I thought she doesn’t say a word.

  “You don’t just get to pull this ‘I’m a Steele’ bullshit to get what you want, Jordan. I fucking laid my heart out to you bit by bit over that summer, we slept together and I
wrote you that fucking note. That stupid note now that I think about it. Do you even know how rejected I felt when you didn’t even call? I said we could make things work, explore and see where things went . . . but you . . . you freaking ghosted me like everyone’s doing these days. If you . . . if you want me then you need to work for it. I’m not going to just fall right back into your arms like I did when I was a teenager. I’m not the same woman. I’m not that naïve anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . . I really need some space right now.”

  Lacey takes a step back and starts to turn, but I wrap my arm around her and pull her in close, resting my chin on top of her head. “I’ve known you long enough to know when you say you need space it’s bullshit. It’s the one moment where you want someone to pull you close and tell you it’s okay.”

  “How is it you remember things like this, but slowly broke my heart?”

  I close my eyes, genuinely hating that I hurt her. She didn’t deserve it. “Because I’m a bastard.”

  Chapter Three

  Life is not about who you once were, it is about who you are right now, and the person you have the potential to be.

  ~ Unknown

  Lacey

  Last night was uncomfortable in a variety of ways. I’ve done such a decent job at keeping a good distance between the two of us, only mixing together when absolutely necessary. Even then I find a way to make myself scarce so I’m not put in situations where I’m near him. Until last night. After ten years of keeping my impeccable footing, he started to take the lead over our dance.