“I took her out stargazing on my yacht and we had a great time. Woke up the next day had brunch and went to my place and guess who fucking shows up?”
His brown eyes went wide. “Not Eve?”
“Thank fuck not. Nola Paloma.”
He groaned. “Damn, she’s a hot one.” Then he seemed to remember himself. “Shit, did you throw my sister over for Nola?!”
“Fuck no! And fuck you for even asking. She just walked on in, acting like she owned the place. You know I don’t bring chicks to my place, so what the fuck was she even doing there?”
“Causing trouble is my guess. Word is she’s getting too old to continue to be Nola Paloma.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. “Anyway, by the time we finished arguing and I got her to leave, by threatening to call the police by the way, Lacey was long gone. And she hasn’t bothered to return my calls or texts, so don’t look at me like I’m the bad guy here.” That’s what pissed me off so much, Lacey left without giving me a chance to explain.
“Look Walker, Lacey is beautiful, we both know that. But no woman will feel like she stacks up against Nola, never mind one as insecure as my sister.”
What the fuck? “Lacey’s not insecure, she’s one of the most confident people I know besides your cocky ass. And she is beautiful.”
It just wasn’t the kind of beauty that hit you right in the face. But, when she laughed, or even when she just smiled, she was stunning. Everything about her was alluring.
“Interesting. But that’s not what I mean. She’s got that whole fresh faced youthful thing going on, and she feels cute, not beautiful.”
“That’s fucking stupid.” He smirked but I ignored him as we entered the deli and got in line.
“Women are strange Walker, and Lacey is stranger than most. But…never mind.” He had a smile I didn’t particularly like, but it was our turn to place our orders so I let it go. I ordered a Rueben since I doubted I had to worry about kissing Lacey later.
“She’s not strange, she’s unique.”
He snickered and I elbowed him in the gut. “Asshole.”
“Let’s get these to go, I got some new craft beers in the fridge in my office that goes great with subs. Add dill and vinegar chips too, please,” he called to the bearded kid behind the counter. “Don’t look now, but Nola hasn’t given up.” I turned in the direction Lukas was pointing and groaned.
“What the fuck is up with women from my past?” I dropped a fifty on the counter and headed for the door. It was time Nola understood exactly where she stood in my life.
Lacey
“Is it triplets?!”
Poppy had invited me to lunch, via my assistant, just to make sure I showed up, and I’d assumed it was to announce that the baby she was having with Blake was babies.
She blinked big blue-green eyes and frowned. “What? No! Bite your tongue Lacey.” She stole an olive from my salad and rolled a slice of bacon around it, moaning like food was going out of style. “No, I’m ready to start planning the wedding. This little bugger will be born in four months and the wedding will be in eight.” She looked at me and then Talia expectantly before she pulled two folders from the chair beside her and handed them to us. “While you look those over, Lacey can tell us all about getting it on with that hunk Walker.”
I held in a groan, because Walker was the last person I wanted to talk about, especially with two knockouts like them. But we were friends, so I let out a long breath and rolled my eyes.
“It’s good. The sex is insanely good, but things are casual.” We both kept saying we were casual, but things felt less and less casual by the day. Except lately and that’s only because I haven’t answered his calls or texts all week. Because I was a coward, and more hurt than I wanted to let on. I told them about the yacht and the stargazing. “It was amazing.”
“Shit, a yacht for real?” Talia’s tone was a mix of disbelief and maybe a hint of disgust.
“Yep. It was nice and he got this amazing telescope so we could look at the constellations. The whole weekend was great. Until Nola Paloma walked into his apartment in a gold dress. Yes, a gold dress.”
“Holy shit,” Talia said in an awed whisper.
“What happened?” Poppy cradled her chin in one hand, eyes filled with shock.
“I got dressed and got the hell out of there. Do you think I wanted to stand around and wait for him to make up some obvious excuse to get rid of me for the super model!”
“Good point,” Poppy ceded. “But you don’t know what happened because you left. Right?”
I nodded, knowing I was a coward for ignoring his attempts to talk. But it just brought home what we both knew. He’d get bored eventually, and something shiny and perfect like her would steal his attention. Better to get it over with now.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“And you’re avoiding his calls,” Talia added with a smirk. “It’s buzzed at least three times, and we haven’t even gotten our appetizers yet.”
Damn, I hated this whole insightful friends business. “I am. It’s called self-preservation. I don’t have a right to be jealous, and the fact that I am means I’m more invested than I should be.”
Poppy groaned, and when the pot stickers came to the table she reached for one immediately. “Hot! Goo too,” she murmured around the steamy piece.
“Ask him flat out if he’s still fucking her,” Talia said, apparently tired of waiting for Poppy to finish making love to the pot sticker.
Poppy nodded, putting another pot sticker on her plate but busying her hands with her iced tea. “All right. You have a right to feel whatever you’re feeling, but you have an absolute right to know if he’s sticking his dick in someone else while he’s sticking it in you.” Poppy was fierce and I was in awe.
“I want to be you when I grow up,” I told her seriously.
She waved a dismissive hand at me. “I never want to grow up. I’m going to play with this baby like I’m a big kid too. And the next one.”
“Settle down lady, let’s get through this pregnancy first,” Talia said, placing an affectionate hand on her shoulder. “Shit. Turn around.”
I knew by her expression that bad news was coming. I turned in my seat and everything was in slow motion. Walker, looking gorgeous and fierce, with Nola as she strut down the street like it was her own personal runway. She plastered her body against his, again, and then pressed a too long to be friendly kiss on his mouth.
The worst part was watching his hands curl around her hips instead of pushing her away, or recoiling in disgust. But, of course he wasn’t disgusted, because she was gorgeous and oozed sex appeal. I turned my back to them and raised a brow at Poppy.
“You were saying?”
Poppy frowned and her expression turned fierce. “I was saying fuck him and I was saying it vehemently.”
That made me laugh. It was good to have someone other than overprotective brothers to talk to, especially right now. It didn’t stop the feelings that were beginning to creep up on me. Duped. Not good enough. Foolish. Cast aside.
Poppy was right. Fuck him.
Walker
“This has gone on long enough.”
I stood on Lacey’s porch with a box of pizza in one hand and a bottle of tequila in the other, a hopeful smile on my face. Lacey however, wore a sexy scowl as I pushed inside and kicked the door closed.
“Come on in Walker,” she said sarcastically. I smiled because Lacey wasn’t one to back down. Ever.
I was already in the living room setting the cargo on her coffee table and taking the seat right in the middle of her favorite sofa. I flashed a smile at her across the room and patted the seat beside me.
“Have a seat, Lacey.” I couldn’t help but smile at her, standing there so brave on the other side of the coffee table looking defiant as hell.
I was more than content to wait her out, and eventually she walked around the table and took the seat to my right, but she made sure I knew just how unhappy she was
with me.
“I’m sitting. Happy?”
Not yet. “Now, let’s get a few things straight. I don’t like it when you run out on me and I like it even less when you don’t give me a chance to explain.” Lacey sucked in a breath, head filled with steam to tell me off, but my hand on her thigh stopped her cold. “Nola and I have never been anything more than occasional sex buddies. And that was a long time ago. In all that time she never once came to my place.” I still couldn’t believe she’d pulled that shit, showing up at my house like that. “If you’d have stayed for just a second we could have finished that movie and I wouldn’t have to pretend that I don’t know how it ends.”
She looked at me with a flash of humor shining in her brown eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly. “I saw you kissing her on the street. You were with Lukas, and I was inside Pedro’s with Poppy and Talia.”
Shit. It was even worse than I thought. Now I understood her silence. “She tracked me down, determined to change my mind. Apparently, she’s getting too old to model and needs security.” I rolled my eyes realizing it sounded as dumb as it had the first time. “I told her to get lost and I may have threatened to pull all ads featuring her if I saw or heard from her again.”
She sucked in a breath and looked up at me, meeting my eyes fully for the first time. “Seriously?”
I nodded, unable to tear my gaze from hers while my hand grazed up and down her thigh. “Fuck yeah. This might be hard for you to believe, but I don’t let women come to my home. It’s hard to get them to go away after that.” Nola’s behavior was the exact reason I’d never had a woman in my space since Eve. “Nola’s desperation forced her to track me down.”
“Wow.” She was trying not to look at me and I grabbed her chin with my thumb and forefinger until her eyes fluttered up to mine.
“Apology accepted.”
A frown creased her brows. “I don’t recall apologizing.”
“You didn’t, but you’re sorry for overreacting and for being a gross, insecure girl.”
She laughed, her look incredulous. “Gross and insecure?” I nodded and she laughed again.
“Say it.”
“I’m sorry for not giving you a chance to explain. Happy?” I nodded even though I wasn’t happy. That was a good start, but we could do better. “Although you don’t really owe me an explanation.”
I knew what she was saying, because I’d been the one to make sure she knew where we stood from the start. But it still pissed me off. “If some guy showed up here while we were cuddled up right here, I’d damn sure expect one.”
Her serious expression morphed into a loud, jarring laugh. “Oh please, you are full of shit! You would have gone all caveman on whoever it was, puffing your chest out and probably hurling a few threats.”
I conceded her point, but only to myself, flashing a provocative smile instead. “I admit nothing.” She laughed again and I pulled her close, tucking her into my side. “Did you miss me?” It was obvious that a moment of insanity had forced that question out of me. I held my breath as she leaned forward, ignoring my hand on her thigh, and flipped open the pizza box.
Lacey leaned back and shrugged. “Maybe I did, but I definitely miss how you feed me.” A mischievous smile flashed around a bite of pizza but I knew the truth.
A wry smile twisted my lips. “I have something else I want to feed you.”
Her gaze heated. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised that you just came right out and said that, but I am.” Lacey opened for another bit of the pizza and my cock turned rock hard behind my zipper. She groaned as she finished the slice, licking her lips and moaning the way she often did when it was my cock in her mouth.
“If you’re trying to tempt me Lacey, it’s working.” She paused with her middle finger still sandwiched between soft pink lips and I groaned.
She pulled her finger quickly from her mouth and the popping sound had my cock getting closer to breaking his restraint.
“I wasn’t trying to.”
And that just made her even more tempting. “Are we good, Lace?”
She sighed, grabbing a napkin to give her a distraction while she made up her mind. Brown eyes searched mine, though I wasn’t sure for what, for a long time before she leaned back and let out a long breath. “Yeah Walker, we’re good.”
My shoulders relaxed and leaned over until she had to lean back with a wary smile. “I’m glad to hear that . So fucking glad,” I told her and before she could say anything else, my lips were on hers. It felt so good to have her here, under me, curves in my hands again. She groaned into my mouth and I sank onto her, my hands couldn’t get enough.
Refused to get enough.
By the time we got to the pizza again, it was ice cold.
Lacey
I sat across from my older brother while he finished up a phone call, spine erect while my heart raced in my throat. You’d think riding high on three rounds of amazing sex, not to mention the most orgasmic sixty-nine of my life, would have me feeling more relaxed. Hell, even more confident, but as Blake hung up his desk phone and turned his steely blue eyes to me, I felt like a little girl with lopsided pigtails.
“Lace?”
“Right. Sorry.” I’d gone over the proposal at least a dozen times over the past week to make small changes, double and triple checking the numbers. This was it. “This is my proposal for Peak Adventures own sports podcast. I know you wanted the radio and TV but the Shepherds don’t know what they want, and I don’t think a deal is going to happen.”
“How is a podcast better?”
I sucked in a deep breath and explained the benefits. “Worldwide exposure online, for one thing. For another, it means we can rotate different athletes as host, commentator or whatever title we choose, to reach out to different markets. Think about how many alpine sporting events take place away from North America. Look at the numbers before you make up your mind.”
Blake nodded, but his face was completely unreadable as always. When I was a teenager I thought he wore that look on purpose just to force me to work harder and try for a smile, or a look of pride. Now I knew it was just genetics.
“Let me look this over for a few days so that I can have all the information you have before we discuss it.”
I nodded, but I had a feeling this was the boss’ equivalent to ‘we’ll see’ from moms. It was very likely the brush-off. After weeks of late nights, working on the proposal day and night, he was going to put me off until I forgot or gave up.
“Sure.” I pushed out of the chair and grabbed my documents. “Thanks.”
“By the way, your new marketing campaign was pretty brilliant. Those bloopers have spiked our web traffic and its already translating to sales.”
“Thanks, Blake.” It felt good to get praise and recognition from Blake for my hard work, even though I knew it was meant to soften the blow. Even as I walked out feeling disappointed, there was a bounce in my step and when my phone rang, I smiled at Walker’s flashing name.
“This is getting to be a habit, Mr. Titus.”
He growled into the phone. “It makes me so hard when you call me that.”
I sucked in a breath and leaned against the wall just outside Blake’s office. “I know.”
He groaned. “There’s a dinner tonight in San Diego and I can’t think of a more stimulating, or sexier companion than you Lacey.”
He was smooth, and I was smiling like a damn fool as I made my way to my office where I could squeeze my thighs against the swell of desire between them.
“Is that so?”
“Say yes.”
I wanted to but, “I don’t have a thing to wear.” It was a weak excuse but my mind was a fog of desire and it was the best I could do on the fly. “But yes, I’d love to go to this mysterious dinner with you.” I could find something plain and simple quickly. A basic black or red dress would do the trick. It was just one more thing I had to do, and I pushed my office door open with the goal of seeing what I could shift in my s
chedule to make this dinner happen, because yeah, I was that far gone.
But I was brought up short by the man reclining on the white sofa in my office. Walker’s legs were crossed at the ankle and one arm was flung casually over a box big enough for a European sized refrigerator.
“You’re always so agreeable, sweetheart. Come here.” His voice was seductive as hell and my legs went before I could make a decision, meeting him just as he stood. “Hey, Lace.” One hand went to my hip and the other cradled the back of my head and his mouth fell to mine in a kiss I felt all the way down to my toes.
When he pulled back my eyes fluttered open. “Hi.” My voice was breathless. He flashed that smile that was one hundred percent Walker and pressed another kiss that was hot as hell and much too short to my lips.
“You smell good.”
“So do you. And you bought me a dress?” I don’t think any guy had ever bought me clothes before, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. Was it hot that he’d pick something out that he wanted to see me in or was it weird and possessive?
“No sweetheart, I bought you the dress.”
And hours later as I stared at the dress, I had to agree. It was teal with a corset and mounds of tulle and a crystal studded built-in belt. I was in love with it and with the sexy green and black lace lingerie Walker included in his generous gift. I’d never owned anything so sexy as the demi-bra that made my breasts look spectacular. And the underwear, well they rode low on my hips and there was nothing but a strand of lace between my cheeks. But my favorite was the lace top stockings that made me feel like a femme fatale.
“You look even better than I imagined you would.” Walker’s deep voice pulled me from my thoughts and I turned to see him leaning against the wall in nothing but a towel, hair wet from the shower.
“There’s almost nothing to it, but it’s very sexy.”
“No shit.” His gaze lingered on my curves, leaving a trail of heat all over my skin. “Beautiful. Just fucking beautiful.” Walker’s gaze never left mine, not when he walked towards me, not when his hands caressed my shoulders and down my back to cup my ass. “Lacey, fuck.”
Sinful Takeover_An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 8
