Destructive Luxe-A Luxe Novel: Book 2

by H. Q. Frost

  To help clear his head, when he woke up, he went running and she woke alone. She dressed for work, made him breakfast, and when she tried to leave, he stopped her.

  "I have to tell you something," he said.

  "You need to shower." She wiped his sweaty forehead with the towel on his shoulder.

  "That's not what I want to tell you." He chuckled. "You made me breakfast?" He smiled sitting down.

  "I wish I could cook for you more, baby." She kissed his temple softly. "But we're both so busy. What'd you want to tell me?"

  "You know the other night when I came home and you were wasted, passed out on the carpet?" He gestured toward the carpet.

  "Yeah?" Embarrassment had her glancing away.

  "I saw the computer, what you were searching." His eyes glowed with an excitement as he focused on hers.

  Thinking he was going to be upset she didn't tell him about her mother, she said, "I've been so busy, baby. It hasn't come back to mind."

  "I found her." He stared up at her.

  "Who?" She didn't need that answer, she fully understood what he was telling her.

  "Your mom."

  "Oh, no." A laugh bubbled from her because he mistook her intentions for searching her out. "I don't want to find her."

  "Well I found her. She's in Vandalia."

  "That's not her then." She was still smiling. "I think I saw Utah or something. I want to get into work before eight, baby." She kissed his lips.

  "Lily, it's her." He stopped her. "She lived in Utah a year ago but she moved back."

  "Why do you know this? How do you know this?" Anger began to stiffen her body.

  "I did a few searches on her. It wasn't really hard. She's in the phone book, an avid supporter of her local church that does a lot of donating, and her name's on everything to do with the church. I've seen other pictures and compared to the one that was on the table. It's her, baby."

  Her wide eyes narrowed and she took a step back. "Why'd you do that?"

  "You were searching for her—"

  "I was drunk! I wasn't searching for her to fucking find her, Ian!" With a high-pitched growl she snatched her purse and keys and stormed out of the condo.

  Lilith didn't want to know anything about her and she didn't want Ian to either. She hadn't told him anything about her except she left and that's all she wanted him to know. The less she thought about it, the less insane she felt.

  Speeding down the road, she grabbed her phone.

  "Well good morning, ZP," Justin answered and she smirked.

  "Can I come see you?"

  "Now?"

  "Yeah, you home?"

  "I'm at the office. Stop in."

  "Back door?"

  "Yeah, you remember where my office is?"

  "I'll figure it out."

  She slipped through the back door, hoping to avoid other people because she wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. Peeking her head around the doorframe she saw he was on the phone but he smiled and waved her in. The door quietly closed behind her and she looked around his office while he watched her.

  "Thank you, I'll be in touch." He hung up.

  Her mouth opened to tell him about the awful, not so awful, thing Ian had done, but he held up a newspaper. On the arts and entertainment section was a picture of her naked, painted, blindfolded, gagged, and posing like she was staked to a cross.

  "Ashley Jacks did not die for your sins—" He tried to read the headline but she snatched the paper away to look at it closely.

  All inappropriate areas were blurred but that was her, most definitely, and even with the gag you couldn't mistake her curvy lips.

  "What the hell," she mumbled reading the article.

  It gave a rundown of the exhibit and how Ashley was the top selling artist of the night, beating every other artist by forty percent. It went on to praise her work, give details on how to get in touch with her, and a vague price range of what she offered. Then it went on claiming the meaning of the live model was to denounce religion.

  "You, ZP, are the antichrist of the art world." He let out a laugh.

  The well-known anti-religion author of the article twisted the meaning of the photograph he happened to capture as Lilith was stretching. Her stance in the picture wasn't the position she held for close to three hours.

  "I was stretching," she said softly, in shock from the picture and message he was portraying.

  Justin was still laughing and she finally looked up at him and scowled. He was used to media twisting anything they wanted and he found the harmless article amusing.

  "Why are you laughing?" she snickered, throwing the paper to his desk.

  "I find it funny how one asshole can turn you, Ashley, and now the Jacks name into a religious bashing art fair."

  "I was just stretching." She put her hand to the bridge of her nose; he looked away because what he once found cute, he now found aggravating because of Ian. "Oh my god, I don't hate religion. I'm Catholic! People are going to see this! People have seen this! This is not going to be good for Luxe. Oh fuck."

  Sensing her stress, he stopped laughing and went to her side.

  "This day can't get worse," she breathed.

  Feeling guilty for contributing to her obviously already terrible day, he said, "Don't worry about it. No one will know it's you."

  "You knew!" she blurted and he cocked his eyebrow at her.

  "Of course I knew." He'd studied things about her she didn't realize people took notice of. "Sit down. You want some coffee?"

  "No, I don't want coffee! That asshole," she shrieked. "I wonder if Ashley knows." Her fingers furiously pounded out a text.

  SEXY LILITH: Have you seen the arts and entertainment section of the Chicago Draw?

  "I came because I needed a pick-me-up," she huffed and stood. "And I get this." Her eyes went to the paper.

  "I'm sorry." He assumed it was him that pissed her off.

  "It's not you," she snickered then touched his shoulder. "I have to go. I gotta get to work. I'll call you later." She pulled open the office door and was gone before he even got to the hall.

  "Fuck!" Justin groaned punching the doorframe, then scowled at a man who chose the wrong time to come speak with him.

  "I'll come back," he nervously said.

  LILITH's bleak creation

  I'm inundated with stupidity this morning! I have a hard enough time dealing with my life, and this stuff keeps adding up. Everywhere I turn there's a roadblock of stupidity.

  I hold my head up and erect my posture as I walk into the office.

  "Lily!" Joanna says; she's been waiting for me. "You said today we can talk about the job."

  God, it's like nine in the morning! Give me a fucking minute!

  "Go wait in my office," I say, seeing Tash and Richie talking. I don't know if it's just this morning but this pisses me off. "Tash!" I snap. "Run the schedule and put it on my desk, both of them. Richie, check the tanks of every car and put the report on my desk when you're done."

  "Report?" he asks dumbly.

  "Yes, I want it written down how much gas is in each vehicle. Matter of fact, I want to know last date of service on every vehicle, oil change, wiper change, whole nine." I look at Veronica and she's watching me terrified, and she should be.

  I'm feeling completely irrational today and I have no idea what's going to happen. This is not a good way to run a business.

  In my office, I close the door behind me and Tash meekly asks, "Do you want me to leave, Lily?"

  "No." I sit down and pick up Joanna's test results seeing she's one hundred percent clean. "Are you a virgin?" I ask Joanna who's sitting in front of my desk.

  "What?" she asks through laughter. "I'm not, but what's that got to do with anything?"

  I'm not even in the mood to make this job seem like something it's not. "We sell sex, Joanna. Sex with strange men who pay massive amounts of money to get between your legs."

  Her look is priceless and I almost laugh.

  "R
ichie?" She cringes and I chuckle.

  "Richie is a driver. Security. He looks after the girls' safety while they're on a date. You are paid for an allotted time to date a man or fuck him, but most of your clients will strictly be fucking—"

  "Mrs. Luxe?" Veronica buzzes into my office and I huff.

  "Yes?" My annoyance is thick and I'm going to lose it on the timid cat that works the front desk.

  "You have a delivery. Do you want me to sign for it?"

  "Yes," I say slowly like she's incompetent, because clearly she is!

  "I just wanted to make sure."

  I turn back to Joanna and she's grinning. "Something funny?"

  "You little slut!" She's laughing hard and I wait, not finding anything funny. "This could be really exciting." Her grin stretches ear to ear and I want to slap it off her face.

  "There's more. It's not just sex. You're replacing one of the girls that became pregnant and she was most known for how…" I don't know what word to use. "Kinky…she can be."

  "Like what?" There's a stupid grin plastered across her face and she's on the edge of her seat.

  "She takes and gives beatings during sex. Nothing to cause massive bodily harm," I say quickly. "Smacking, spanking, biting, scratching, pinching, that sort of thing. Nothing that will break the skin or leave permanent marks. Nothing bone breaking, but rough sex, Joanna." I'm staring her dead in the eyes and she's not grinning anymore, she looks scared.

  "I've never done that," she says quietly.

  "This is the only job I have available."

  "I want the job!" she blurts. "But what if I don't do it right."

  I don't know what! I don't know anything about it myself. I mean, I can use my damn imagination, why can't she!

  "There's a class you can take," Tash pipes up quietly like she's not sure if she should be listening.

  We both look at her. There's classes for this?

  "My aunt teaches it. It's how to spice up your sex life and she goes over everything from love making to painful bondage. It's usually women over the age of fifty, but anyone can attend. It's fifty dollars and she sells all kinds of sex toys and clothes. It potentially could be fun."

  I stare at Tash and it gives me an idea. "Can you book her for a private party?"

  "I don't see why not. I can ask." She shrugs.

  "Do that. Set something up for this weekend then send out a memo to each girl. On the memo I want it to say that this is a highly recommended class and you'll in some way be compensated if you attend. Check the girls' schedules and pick a day and time when most of them are available."

  "Okay, Lily." She turns back to her computer and I look at Joanna.

  "Are you interested?"

  "Can I think about it?" Joanna asks.

  "Of course. Not here though. I don't have anything for you to do around here—"

  "Actually," Tash says in a soft voice as she looks at me. "The nail polish needs to be organized, cleaned, and tested. I tried to get to it Saturday but I didn't have time."

  I look at Joanna. "Do you want to do that?"

  "Yeah, I can do that." Her head's bobbing yes but she's a little stunned and it's understandable.

  A loud knock comes across my door. "Come in."

  Ian pushes the door open holding an enormous bouquet of the deepest red calla lilies I've ever seen. My mouth drops open. Is he insane!

  "You had flowers delivered," he says, laying them on my desk.

  That must have been my delivery, but why is he bringing this much attention to us! I grab the card and see they're not from Ian, they're from Justin.

  ZP, I didn't mean to offend you this morning.

  I'm sorry princess.

  Call me,

  Justin

  A grin splits my lips until I realize Ian is still standing here.

  "Well, don't leave us hanging," he playfully says, but I know he's being far from playful.

  "They're from Justin. Who else would they be from?" I glare at him. He should have bought me a damn flower shop after what he did.

  I see Joanna nervously looking between us. She has no idea what Justin is to me and her confusion is comical.

  "Cute." Ian leaves my office.

  Cute! I want to scream, 'no, it's thoughtful, it's sexy, it's him kissing my ass and I like it'.

  "Tash, do we have a vase these will fit into?"

  "I think so." She giggles and leaves the office.

  "Joanna, there's no pressure but this is the job that's on the table."

  "What will I be making?"

  "You can make up to eight thousand dollars a date," I say and her eyes light up; she's grinning again. "Let's not forget the fifty seven thousand you owe Ian. Think about it, Jo. Once you're involved with the company there's a lot of legal matters that go into it. We do not run around telling people what we do here. As far as people are concerned, we sell cosmetics."

  She starts to laugh and I smirk the first genuine smile of the morning and I think Justin's flowers have helped.

  "This is a little crazy, Lily," she whispers after looking over her shoulder.

  All I can do is nod my head because it's my crazy and I like it.

  Tash comes back with a beautiful vase, taking my flowers and walking away with them.

  "I think I could like it," Joanna says.

  "Think about it, okay? Let me take you to the Vanity room so you can get started on the polish."

  There's well over a thousand nail polishes in this cupboard and they're a mess. The bottles are covered in polish and I can clearly see some of them are empty.

  "Stacey." I smile; she's dressing in the corner.

  "Hi, Mrs. Luxe." She waves.

  "This is Joanna. She's going to go through the polish."

  "Hi, Joanna."

  "Hi." Joanna's clearly uncomfortable by Stacey's nudity.

  "How'd yesterday go?" I ask Stacey about a date I know she was nervous about.

  "Oh! Great! He was the nicest he's ever been for me! I took your advice and when I left he was a happy customer. They don't call you Mrs. Luxe for nothin'." She grins.

  Lilith met with her first client of the day, Quincy Rodriguez, and when she backed out of the sex it initially pissed him off. She had to talk her way out of him complaining to Ian. It wasn't hard. She learned to be charming, but it was a lot of work and the last thing she wanted to deal with after the stressful morning.

  Tony drove her home so she could change and take a quick breather.

  "Lily?" he called from the living room.

  "What?"

  "Ain't this shit Ian's?"

  Her heart stilled; she completely forgot there was traces of Ian all over the condo.

  "Ian? Ian Jacks?" she called out, rolling her eyes at her response.

  "Yeah." He chuckled and she came from the room with a dress in hand.

  "What?" She approached him feigning confusion.

  He pointed to Ian's golf clubs and flask that sat next to the entertainment center.

  "I borrowed them," she blurted and he picked up the flask.

  Grabbing it she blurted, "That's Ashley's. Hey, is she still seeing Bryan?" The attempt at a subject change seemed to work.

  Tony pulled a club from the bag and began swinging it. "I don't know."

  "Don't break anything." Lilith opened the refrigerator and her phone began to ring.

  "Lily, you were booked for a three o'clock," Tash said and Lilith heard Tony's phone beep, alerting him he had another job.

  "Really?" she groaned.

  "I know it's a last minute booking but they've been a long time client and he's one of your clients."

  "Who is it?"

  "Private," Tash said.

  Most of Lilith's clients were private clients, she didn't know why she bothered asking.

  "What's the dress code? I'm at my house and I don't have time to go back to the office and change."

  "No dress code."

  "How long's the date? There's stuff I wanted to do at the office to
day."

  "Just tell me what it is. I'll do it."

  "Did Joanna finish?" Lilith asked and Tash let out a laugh.

  "No. She's slow, really slow."

  "I need her to beat men, her speed doesn't matter," Lilith said and Tony glanced at her, intrigued by the conversation. Tash giggled and Lilith huffed. "How long's the date?"

  "Two hours. You're meeting at the zoo gates."

  "The zoo?" Lilith groaned and rolled her eyes. "Send me the client information. I need to eat. I'll see you in a few hours."

  Lilith quickly made a salad and saw Tony watching her.

  "You're hungry," she muttered.

  "I didn't eat lunch. I had to wait in the lobby during your last date."

  She pushed the salad toward him and began making a second. While fixing her makeup before they left, she heard her phone beep with the client information. Knowing she'd be late, she rushed to liven her curls and heard a crash come from the dining room. Walking out of the bedroom, she glared at Tony who was standing across the room from a picture that fell off the wall.

  "I didn't do it, Lily. That shit fell on its own. I was reading." He held up the magazine in his hands.

  "Dammit," she mumbled, looking at the hole in the wall the painting created. "We have to go!"

  The clock read 2:45 and with traffic she'd be late.

  "I'll get us there on time," Tony assured, hurrying her out.

  "My purse!" She ran back in and grabbed it before blurting, "My coat!"

  On her way to the car, Marie the neighbor, appeared in her driveway.

  "Hi, Lilith." The happiness beaming on her face only pissed Lilith off, but she hid it.

  "Hi!" Lilith smiled wide, still not remembering the woman's name.

  "You're a busy woman." She chuckled. "I talked to you fiancé the other day for almost an hour. He's a nice fella. He was telling me he's in cosmetics."

  Lilith glanced over her shoulder grateful Tony was in the car. "Yeah and I'm actually headed back to work now."

  "You work together? Oh! He didn't mention that. How nice!" She chuckled. "What's that like? Seeing each other that much?"

  "We barely see each other, but I am in a hurry because I'm late. I stopped home for lunch—"

  "So late! That's not good. You should really try and eat early afternoon, gives your stomach time for digestion. Room for dinner."