Forbidden Pleasures (NSC Industries #11)

by D H Sidebottom

  “Listen, let me have a word with Bea, if she’s fine with it then I’m all for it.”

  He cheered and his voice relaxed, the earlier tension now gone. “Good boy!”

  “You’ll have to team up with Tom this year though, the one thing I won’t be doing is sleeping with any women.”

  As if he’d expected it, he chuckled, “Don’t worry, Tom’s all for it. Can you believe he’s never had a threesome? Where the fuck has the man been?”

  I’d expected to feel a little jealous but to be honest, I was more shocked that I wasn’t. Bea was more than enough for me and I shook the thought of her from my head when my dick started to grow. Miles was as carefree as they came, he lived for sex with no sentiment. We’d often indulged in group sex together because of his relaxed attitude and there was no better feeling than the sensation of your cock in a hot arse with the slide of another cock alongside, the tightness that gripped you was extraordinary. I squeezed my eyes closed when I couldn’t help but picture Bea, beneath me, my cock in her delicious ass and Miles inside her dripping cunt. Fuck! I was painfully hard and amazingly not jealous. Miles would be the perfect partner, he was so detached that I didn’t think even I would get jealous. He wasn’t selfish in bed either, he could make Bea feel as good as I wanted her to feel, yet I knew he would never step out of line in the emotions department. And I trusted Bea impeccably, although I knew she’d slept with the bastard who had taken her, it had been the drugs that had and not Bea in mind or spirit.

  As if my best friend had access to my thoughts, he cleared his throat. “I know how much Bea means to you, Jay so please don’t take this the wrong way but…”

  I knew what he was going to say and my body tensed. “I’m not sure how… accepting she would be. I must admit though, for a minute there my mind raced away with the picture of her between us both,” I finished for him. I wanted nothing more than to make my girl feel good, to show her how fucking amazing she actually was in bed. Her ex had made her feel insecure and useless but she was far from it.

  Even though it had been mere hours since I’d fucked Bea like my life depended on it, my dick was solid and agonisingly rigid. Shit. I was in trouble because now I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.

  “Listen, let me know,” Miles cut in to my thoughts.

  “How about you come to mine for supper, then you can both get to know one another and I can feel Bea out a bit?”

  “Perfect idea,” he agreed.

  My mouth was dry when I ended our call so slipping into my shoes ready for work I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and made my way to my car. I wasn’t due in for another couple of hours but the house was already too quiet without her and she’d only been here for a day. I loved having her with me, the feel of her soft body against mine in the night, the rhythmic softness of her breathing filling the silence in the bedroom that had been there for far too long. Her little whimpers and the way her nose twitched in her sleep was adoringly cute, along with her faint shivers in the night making me chuckle. She was entertaining even when she was asleep.

  The building was busy as I made my way through reception to the security unit at the rear of the foyer. Pushing open the door, Bradley was sat in my chair, filling in on my morning off. He shot to his feet but I shook my head and waved him back down, “You’re okay, I have some work to catch up, I can do it from your desk then I won’t get as distracted by the damn phone.”

  He grumbled and nodded in agreement “Damn thing hasn’t shut the hell up all morning, dunno how you do it.”

  Rolling my eyes and nodding when the phone rang again and Bradley cursed as he snatched it up, I pulled out my phone and text Bea.

  Me:

  We have company for supper, my friend Miles is joining us, that ok?

  It was a while before she answered back and then it was short.

  Bea:

  Ok

  Me:

  ??? Everything ok?

  Frowning when she didn’t reply I hit the call icon. It rang for an age before her voicemail kicked in. Grumbling under my breath, I tried again, receiving the same damn response. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was still pissed at me about Belinda’s visit that morning even though I thought we’d sorted it. Grabbing my Bluetooth headset, I told Bradley I was checking on something then took the stairs up to the next level where Bea’s office was.

  Just as I walked along the corridor towards her office, I stalled when I noticed a group of people outside Bea’s office. Fran, noticing me, visibly relaxed with relief. “Thank fuck!” she declared as she hurried towards me. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been ringing down for ten fucking minutes!”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Max King!” she hissed out his name, “He’s in Bea’s office and he isn’t a happy camper, at all.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you hit the panic button!” I snarled as I set of into a run.

  “I did,” she called out after me, “but you ignored it.” I hadn’t ignored it but it was obvious Bradley had. The cunt was dead when I got hold of him.

  Chapter 29

  Bea

  My morning had been totally shit. First off Samantha on reception had insisted on coming into my office every fucking ten minutes with every excuse under the sun, her wages, her holidays, her lieu days, even her damn pension benefits seemed relevant for her to come and see me about. And all because I had a companion for the day; Elijah. The woman was relentless, thrusting her boobs out, fluttering her eyelashes and even cocking her hip like all the damn prostitutes in the Chinatown windows did. And I was ready for ripping her face off her head and shoving it up her perfect ass.

  By mid-morning it got even worse, my whole system crashed, the red blinking light on the PC tower making my teeth grind so hard I knew I’d need a filling by the end of the day. Nothing appeared to be working and after calling the IT unit four times someone eventually arrived two hours later, stuck a stupid little thing in and the whole thing powered up in seconds. After asking Ted, the IT guy, if I could have his gadget thingy just in case it happened again he’d then gone into forty minutes of spiel about how remarkable his software was and how only special employees were allowed one.

  Elijah, sensing my imminent breakdown, had then scurried to Starbucks in search of something full of caffeine and calories to bate my impending insanity.

  And this is when Max King, the guy NSC was currently taking to court for the assault on Sarah DeBourges, decided to barge into my office looking like Satan with a hangover of epic proportions.

  He stood simmering with rage in my open office doorway as I quickly sent a reply to Jay’s text about his friend coming for supper. Fran caught my attention from the reception area, waving her arm about like a One Direction fan on amphetamines, to let me know she’d alerted security.

  I relaxed my face and looked up at him. I wouldn’t let him see my fear, he was just the type of man that would love that. “What can I do for you Max?”

  Taking another step into the room, he slowly turned and closed the door behind him. If it wasn’t for the buzz of rage and tension surrounding him, I’d have thought he was just paying me a regular visit. Max had worked for NSC for over six years and I’d received numerous complaints about his attitude from various employees. Yet until he stepped out of line professionally, there was nothing I could do. Then around three months ago he’d cornered Sarah, a receptionist in the wages department, after working late one night and brutally raped her. Yet because Max had been head of security at the time, he’d cleverly managed to avoid the buildings CCTV - and somewhat of a coincidence, the surrounding cameras had all ‘crashed’ - so in effect it was her word against his that it was sexual assault even with the semen sample they’d taken from her. Hence why Max was currently stood in my office instead of in a cell in one of the many UK prisons.

  “You do realise that my wife has left me. I’ve fallen behind on my mortgage repayments. My Merc has been repossessed, my passport has been seiz
ed, fucking up my trip to the states and to top it off my own fucking kid thinks I’m a leper and refuses to have anything to do with me.” His voice was calm and controlled, however the energy radiating from him was anything but.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied softly, the rampant thud in my chest a huge contradiction to the way I actually sounded.

  He narrowed his eyes on me and stepped closer until he placed his palms on my desk and leaned forwards. “No you’re not, Beatrice, don’t lie.”

  My mouth was so dry I was nervously licking my lips. His eyes held a glint that was warning me to back the fuck off but I knew any movement on my part would bait him into doing something rash, so desperately pushing back my fear I cleared my throat. “I have no reason to lie to you, Max. I am genuinely sorry about your child. However, I don’t see why you seem to think that it’s my fault.”

  He was gnawing on his bottom lip, trying to hold back his rage but when a growl rumbled in his chest it appeared he wasn’t having much luck. “You’re taking me to fucking court, you bitch. How is that not your fault?”

  “NSC are taking you to court, Max, not me.”

  “It was your signature on the paperwork, it’s you who has encouraged Sarah to take legal action!”

  “That’s not how it works.” I was having trouble containing my own rage. Was this man for fucking real? He’d raped Sarah so violently that not only had he broken her cheekbone but he’d left emotional scars that would never in all her lifetime fade. Yet I knew he was only just holding back the urge to throttle me so I had to be careful how I worded my disgust.

  “Well I want my job back.”

  My eyes popped wide and my jaw fell at his demand. He must have gone crazy. There was no other explanation. “I’m afraid that’s not possible until after the court case. If your innocence is determined then NSC will reinstate you, until then I’m sorry but…”

  He shifted so quickly I didn’t have chance to move. His fingers snapped around my throat and he yanked me across my desk, the paperwork I’d been working on tumbling to the floor with everything else in the way.

  “Are you not listening to me? I didn’t ask, I told you. I want my job back.”

  “Max…” I choked out, my fingers curling around his as I tried to loosen his grip. He was strong, I’d give him that. My vision blurred as he continued to yank me, my body dropping to the floor with a thud. As he pushed my face into the carpet and straddled my back, a loud sob burst from me. Ava had taught me all the proper self-defence moves but when memories of the rape burst into my head with the way he held me, I started to panic.

  However, when he leaned into me, his mouth at my ear and whispered to me, all hell broke loose in my head. “You feel just like your brother did beneath me. Are you going to beg for your life like he did?”

  A rage I’d never felt before completely took over, as though a living monster inside me broke free and liberated all the hatred. My ears buzzed with fury and my pounding heart pumped so much adrenaline around my body that I literally felt high on it. I screamed beneath him, thrashing about and clawing at anything I could get my hands on as I tried to free myself.

  “I thought I’d give you a taste of your own medicine bitch, just so you know what it feels like to lose your family like I have.”

  “Arghh!” I screamed in frustration when I couldn’t get free.

  He flipped me over and his fist connected with my cheekbone with a sickening crunch. “The faggot deserved everything I gave him,” he spat with so much hatred my body shivered with the chill in his voice.

  My fingers scraped at the paper surrounding me as I struggled beneath him. I cried out when he punched me again, the pain unbelievable as tears of both frustration and grief flooded my sore cheeks. But then my hand won the battle and my fingers curled around a paperweight that Noah had bought for me one Christmas.

  Swinging my arm, I aimed for his head. I wanted to kill him, beat him until his brains coated the walls and his face crumbled under my assault. But just as I neared contact, his own hand shot out and he grasped my wrist. He tutted and shook his head, “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  He peeled my fingers back and took the weight from me, gripping it in his own hand. Just as the glass came hurtling towards my face, my eyes squeezed closed ready for the contact, Max was pulled from me with a force that sent the glass ball flying across the room.

  I stared as Jay then proceeded to beat the living shit out of him. His fists rained hits like a professional bare-knuckle fighter would, the precision and power behind each strike astonishing. I had never seen anyone fight with as much hatred or determination and it wasn’t until my brain kicked up a gear that I realised Jay was killing him.

  Clambering up and wincing at the pain in my face I flung myself at Jay’s back, grabbing him as I tried to pull him off. “Jay!”

  He didn’t hear me, he couldn’t, he was too far gone in a haze of fury to distinguish anything other than killing the man that had hurt his lover.

  “Jay please,” I tried again. “He’s not worth going to prison for.”

  I looked up when the door to my office flew open and Elijah stood with wide eyes, coffee in one hand a brown paper bag in the other.

  “Don’t just stand there!” I shouted.

  Snapping back to reality, he dropped the items and made for Jay, his strength the only thing that managed to pull a consumed Jay off my brother’s murderer.

  Jay blinked at the heap that was left of Max before his eyes snapped to me. His gaze was frantic as he looked me up and down. He took one giant stride over to me and pulled me to him, his arms curving around me tightly. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded slowly, shock slowing my movements. “It was him,” I managed to choke out. Jay frowned at me and shook his head.

  “It was him what?”

  “Max, he killed Noah.” My voice broke and a sob tore from me.

  Jay stared at me then looked back at Max then back to me. Pulling out his phone, he dialled a number. “It’s me. I need someone saving for me. NSC. First floor. I will.” He ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket then took my hand. Turning to Elijah, he spoke in a soft growl. “Mason is sending someone for him. I’m taking Bea home.”

  He nodded simply. “I’ll stay until they get here. Will you sort the CCTV?”

  Jay nodded. “I’ll handle everything here before I go.”

  Elijah looked at me and grimaced, “I’m so sorry Bea.”

  Shaking my head, I bent to pick up the brown bag. “It’s not your fault, you went to fetch me this.” He nodded but I could see the guilt on his face. “Hey,” I pressed, “This is important.”

  He stared at me like I was crazy but a chocolate muffin was the only thing saving my sanity right then. Jay just shook his head and led me out.

  Chapter 30

  Jay

  Bea was quiet as I gently sponged water over her. Her body was so tense I was surprised she could move. I wrapped my legs around hers, the water lapping around us soothingly. “Bea, talk to me.”

  She remained still for a while but then she shook her head. “I can’t.”

  I thought I’d made progress with her yet still she struggled to open up. It both angered and saddened me. Softly she ran her fingertips up and down my legs, the action calming the rage that was still simmering beneath the surface. “Yes, you can.”

  She shook her head and sighed. “No I can’t, I’m angry.”

  “That’s normal. He killed your brother…”

  “Not Max, you,” she whispered hoarsely as if the words physically hurt her.

  I stilled, stunned by her declaration. “What? I don’t understand.”

  She paused then turned in the water until she was knelt between my legs, her eyes sad and haunted as they fixed on mine. “What you have done makes you as bad as him.”

  “What I have done?” She nodded, lowering her eyes but I lifted her chin making her face me. “We can’t sort this out if you won’t talk to
me. Tell me why you feel like that.”

  Gently she traced the edge of my face with her finger, her eyes following its track. She seemed to struggle but eventually she sighed and looked back at me. “Why didn’t you just phone the police? Why did you ask Mason to fetch him? And what I’m really struggling with is how you can just dish cash out to all the witnesses, paying them off so they’ll keep their mouths shut!” Her questioning started off quiet and timid until her last question burst from her with anger. “And why erase all the CCTV? It was proof about what he did to Noah, and me.”

  Blowing out a breath, I gave her the simplest answer I could. “Because he deserves to die, slowly and painfully.”

  She shook her head, swallowing harshly. “But that’s just it, he doesn’t deserve peace. He should be in prison for the rest of his life, locked up with his own guilt to torture him. I have to grieve for the rest of my life, Jay. I have to wake every morning without my brother, I have to face his birthday, Christmas without him! I will never again be able to see his smile, or hear his laughter. I won’t be able to touch him and console his tears. He’ll never get to tell Jamie how much he loves him…”

  She broke then, her words vomiting from her in between huge gulps of air. “He’ll never hold my child, he’ll never watch me get married. He’ll never again give me that sly wink when he would wind Dylan up… and… and it’s not fair! It’s not fair!”

  “I know, baby,” I whispered as she finally gave in and allowed me to take her anger and grief. “And that’s why he needs to die, because I swear to you, here and now, he will never be allowed to hurt you again. Don’t ask me not to do this, Bea because I can’t. That filthy cunt raped you, he fed you with so much filth that you lost your soul to him.”