Never

by Lulu Pratt

  And before I can protest, she’s moved in on my station in front of the stove and bumped me out of the way with her hips.

  Chuckling, I shake my head and move to the other end of the counter.

  “I thought you loved me, Gladys,” I tease, grabbing the salt shaker.

  “I do,” she says sweetly. “And I want Ms. Lilah to love you too. We can’t accomplish that if you serve her goop.”

  Goop?

  I’m howling with laughter when my phone chimes, alerting me to someone at the front gate.

  When I see Lilah’s name on the screen, I swipe my finger up to grant her entrance.

  “Okay, she’s here,” I announce in a stage whisper. “Remember, I made all this.”

  Gladys tosses me a playful eye roll as I leave the kitchen to let in Lilah. When I pull open the front door, she’s standing there with a contemplative look on her face.

  It vanishes the second she sees me. Her coffee-colored eyes turn inviting.

  “Hi,” she murmurs, going up on her tiptoes to kiss me.

  “Hey Cupcake.” When I return her kiss, the lingering taste of wine on her lips pulls me in for another one.

  “Miss me?” She giggles, using my line as she steps into the foyer.

  “Always,” I tell her truthfully. Whenever she isn’t here, I’m basically just counting down the time until I see her again.

  I’m infatuated. Trust me, I know.

  And for once I don’t give a shit.

  Without thinking, I instantly reach for her bag to carry it to my room. It comes naturally now. After years of never allowing a woman to share my space, it’s become second nature with Lilah.

  “How did you get here?” I ask when I realize there wasn’t a car in the driveway when I let her in.

  “Charli dropped me,” she says. “I had a little bit more wine than she did.”

  Nodding, I accept her answer as fact until I realize I haven’t really seen much of her car these days.

  “Is your car still in the shop?” I wonder aloud.

  Lilah’s face falters for a split second and she actually looks confused before recovering her calm façade.

  “Um, yeah. Still in the shop.”

  She’s lying. And I want to know why.

  “What shop did you say it was in again?”

  She studies me for a second and I can see the wheels spinning in her brain as she formulates her next answer.

  “A friend of mine is working on it.”

  “Which friend?” I follow up not missing a beat.

  Her hand flies to her neck to cover the blush crawling up the side. It’s a tell-tale sign she’s lying. Took me a while to figure it out, but once I did I’ve been able to read her like a book.

  “Something smells good,” she says, changing the subject.

  “You’re hiding something from me,” I say, my voice more accusing than I’d intended.

  “Andrew, I don’t—”

  “Just tell me, Lilah.”

  With a heavy sigh, she brings her hands forward to cover her face as she mutters something into her palm.

  “Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” I say pulling one hand away from her mouth.

  “I can’t afford to bring it home right now,” she mumbles again, the red stain creeping from her neck and up to her cheeks. “The expense isn’t in my budget.”

  Dumbfounded, I look at her and feel like a dick for making her talk about it.

  She’s clearly embarrassed because of it and I just couldn’t drop.

  “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think—”

  “Let’s just drop it. Please,” she begs.

  “How much do you need to get it out?” I ask, doing the exact opposite of what she just requested.

  Eyes growing to the size of golf balls, Lilah shakes her head furiously.

  “I’m not taking money from you, Andrew. Forget about it.”

  I don’t know why I’m surprised, but my ego is a little deflated when she turns down my attempt to help.

  “Fine,” I tell her, coming up with another solution. “I’ll be driving you to and from work until you get it back then.”

  She opens her mouth to object but I’m faster.

  “And when I can’t be there, I’ll arrange for a driver.”

  “That’s insane. You don’t even use a driver!” she protests, placing her hands on her hips.

  But I’m not budging on this.

  “It’s settled, Cupcake. Now come in the kitchen, I have a surprise for you.”

  Thirty-seven

  ANDREW

  “You cooked for me?” Lilah’s eyes are wide as she looks from one pot to another.

  I don’t know how Gladys did it, but while Lilah was upstairs taking a shower, she managed to finish everything and slip away to do laundry on the other side of the house.

  “I had a little help,” I confess, coming up behind her at the counter. With my arms wrapped around her waist, I tell her, “I seasoned the green beans and boiled the water for the pasta. Gladys took care of the rest.”

  With a light laugh, Lilah turns to kiss me. “It’s still sweet. Who knew you paid attention to me enough to notice my favorite food?”

  “I notice everything about you,” I tell her, disrupting the teasing mood.

  Her eyes grow serious as she looks at me, but she breaks eye contact almost immediately.

  Moving across the kitchen, Lilah retrieves two plates for us and we pile the food on high, working in companionable silence.

  Lilah sets her food on the bar then turns to swing open the fridge.

  “How was your day?” she asks, reaching back to hand me a beer.

  As I take it, I admire her legs as she bends over to find a sparkling water for herself. She tossed on boy shorts before coming downstairs and her lush legs are on full display.

  Even though she brought her own clothes, she decided to pull on one of my T-shirts for the night and I’m not mad at the view.

  “Not bad,” I say, finally answering her question. “Getting better now.”

  Lilah fixes me with a knowing smirk as she turns around and catches my eyes lingering on her ass.

  We eat side by side at the breakfast bar. I never really use the formal dining room and I’m glad Lilah isn’t partial to it either. It’s too big for two people.

  The silence is only interrupted from time to time as Lilah moans around a forkful of food.

  “God, this is so good.”

  My pants grow tighter around the crotch as I watch her put on a little show, wriggling against the barstool like a freak.

  “You’re a fucking tease, you know that?” I accuse, taking a long swig of my beer. I need something cool to combat the heat rising all around me.

  With an impish grin, she moans dramatically as she continues to eat.

  “So, so good,” she repeats, not breaking eye contact.

  “I thought we had an agreement about you tempting me, Cupcake.”

  With a small frown, she feigns confusion. “I think you made that agreement on your own. I don’t remember agreeing to anything.”

  Chuckling, I finish off my beer and regard her through narrowed eyes.

  “Thank you for dinner. It was absolutely delicious,” she purrs, sliding off her seat to come stand beside me.

  Instead of touching me, she gathers our plates. She walks over to the sink and my eyes are glued to her hips and ass the whole time.

  When she leans down to load the dishwasher, my cock stands at full attention behind my zipper, making its painful plea to be set free.

  Dishwasher loaded, Lilah turns to the refrigerator again, but this time she has a glass in her hand. She holds it under the ice maker and fills it with crushed ice.

  I think nothing of it because she’s done the same thing countless times. But that sexy gleam in her eyes tells me she’s up to something.

  The sexy sway of her hips as she makes her way back over to me is too tempting to ignore.

  As soon as she’s w
ithin arm’s reach, I pull her into the opening between my legs. But when I try to kiss her, she deftly turns her head so that my lips land against her jaw.

  “Not so fast,” she whispers sexily.

  Falling under her spell, I watch as she fills her mouth with ice and begins sucking on the cubes with obvious gratification. How she makes even that look sexy, I have no fucking clue.

  I’m so caught up in watching her mouth move that I miss her hands when they extend in my direction.

  “Stand up,” she orders.

  On my feet, I watch her carefully as she closes the space between us.

  “Take off your shorts,” comes her next command. I shove my cargo shorts and boxers down obediently.

  Pleased by my quick actions, Lilah’s smile grows as she ogles my erection.

  “Looks like you’re ready for me,” she murmurs as she fills her mouth with even more ice.

  A shudder of anticipation runs from the top of my head to the soles of my feet when she gathers her thick tresses at the top of her head and knots her hair in a loose bun.

  Smiling again, she takes my cock in her hand and begins jerking me off skillfully. I grow even harder against the satiny skin of her palm.

  “You’re so hard for me,” she notes with a lustful note in her voice. Or that might be the ice chips I can see bulging out her cheek.

  Biting her bottom lip, she drops down to her knees right there in front of me, bringing her eye level with my engorged dick.

  “I want to try something on you,” she says studying the vein that runs from tip to base, her hand steadily moving the whole time.

  She can do whatever the fuck she wants if she keeps pumping her hand like that.

  Moving the ice around in her mouth, she stares up at me with big eyes.

  “Do you trust me?” she asks.

  “Yeah,” I bite out when she kisses the head of my cock, swirling her cool tongue around the throbbing tip.

  The cool sensation catches me off guard but it’s not unpleasant. In fact, once the initial shock wears off I’m ready for her to do it again.

  Opening her mouth to take me in, she begins sucking my cock with the most blissed-out expression on her beautiful face. She stretches her mouth as wide as she can, her tongue swirling along the underside almost brings me to my knees.

  A massive shudder runs up my back, and my balls tingle.

  The natural warmth of her mouth mixed with the coolness of the ice chips is starting to drive me insane.

  The sensation is new and refreshing as the liquid coats my rigid length. Lilah is attentive, sucking me down her throat as the ice chips melt creating even more wetness in her hot mouth.

  Some of the liquid overflows from her mouth to coat her chin. The sight makes my hips buck on their own accord, eager to fill her with all of me.

  Her hands move skillfully near the base as she deep-throats me. The onslaught of different sensations is driving me insane.

  She pulls her lips away suddenly, and a resounding pop fills the air as she looks up at me doe-eyed.

  “I want to taste you,” she says and I know exactly what she means.

  When she returns her lips to my cock, my grasp on my self-control vanishes. She’s too damn good at this. The need to spray my seed down her throat consumes me.

  Without warning, I erupt all over her tongue, hips bucking as I fuck into her mouth with everything I have.

  Energy depleted, I pull my semi-erect dick out of her mouth and watch her swallow every drop like it’s her favorite dessert.

  Thirty-eight

  LILAH

  The paper in front of me isn’t making any sense.

  Sitting in my office chair, I push away from my desk. Once on my feet, I begin pacing the length of my office as I try to absorb the words in front of me.

  Rio Venture Corp’s stocks has dropped by seventy percent in the last week.

  The same company I had just gotten Andrew to invest more than four-hundred grand into.

  What the fuck is going on?

  Right before he signed, things were looking up. All the graphs and charts Edward gave me showed nothing but an upward. What had changed in two weeks?

  His initial investment is now worth only one-hundred-and-twenty grand and that may be even lower by the time the market closes at the end of the day.

  I pluck my desk phone from the receiver before I have a chance to second-guess my decisions.

  Edward is going to give me some answers even if it’s the last thing he wants to do today.

  My heart pounds in my ears as I wait for him to pick up. It gets to the fourth ring before he answers.

  “Edward Knight speaking,” he drones into the receiver, sounding far too relaxed all things considered.

  “This is Lilah,” I say hastily. “Look, I need to meet with you in person as soon as possible,” I tell him cutting to the chase.

  “Ms. Tucker, I’m busy for the rest of the day. It’ll have to wait until later in the week,” he says, formally.

  My temper flares at his disregard for the situation. He has to know why I’m calling.

  “I don’t have the luxury of time on my side,” I vent. “I’m sure my client will want to know before then why his investment of four-hundred-thousand dollars is worth less than thirty percent of that right now.”

  Sighing dramatically, Edward excuses himself from someone in his background and finds a quiet corner to finish our conversation.

  “Listen, Ms. Tucker. I appreciate your enthusiasm on this but I would advise you to calm down. It’s not as bad as you think. There’s no need for you to go running to Mr. Knight and getting him riled up for nothing,” he commands.

  “How can you say that? His money is gone!” I erupt, getting angry all over again.

  Again, Edward sighs heavily on the other end.

  “This is not abnormal for new companies starting out. One week their stock is worth hundreds per share and the next it may plummet to pennies on the dollar. This company is young and is bound to make mistakes, but I wouldn’t advise investors to pull out now.”

  I listen silently, counting to ten as he babbles on and on about why I shouldn’t act in a rash manner.

  “I have no doubt that this will correct itself on its own. Knight signed up to be a long-term investor, and I know you informed him of the risks up front. Try not to stress it.”

  Try not to stress it.

  Is he serious right now?

  My boyfriend.

  His brother.

  Scratch that, my client just almost lost three-hundred grand on a shitty investment thanks to my misguided advice and his only words of encouragement are “try not to stress over it.”

  “Besides,” he adds as an afterthought. “I’m sure you’ll think of something to keep Mr. Knight distracted while this all works itself out.”

  The sneer behind his words is audible. My fist automatically clenches in response.

  He continues, fortunately before I say something that I know I will regret. “You’re a very smart woman, Ms. Tucker. I have no doubt that you’ll think of something.” However, what he has just said makes me only angrier.

  Here he goes with this bullshit again. Giving me backhanded compliments because he thinks I’m sleeping with his brother to get what I want.

  He’s so repulsive.

  But I keep that thought to myself, of course.

  Placating him false pleasantries, I hurry him off the line and drop the phone back into its cradle.

  “I’m truly fucked,” I say even though no one is here to soothe me.

  This hole I fell in just gets deeper by the day. My sanity will never be the same after this summer. I’m sure of it.

  I have to find a way to dig myself out of it before it’s too late.

  ***

  “I was definitely surprised to receive your call,” Mason says from across the table.

  We’re sitting in a corner of a small café on my lunch break.

  Once I’d been able to think
clearly after this morning’s fiasco, he was the first person I called.

  I told him I needed some advice and that it would be better if we met in person. He’d agreed easily enough and told me to pick the place and text him the address.

  And here we are.

  Andrew usually meets me for lunch when he’s free and I know my absence today is bound to raise some red flags. But I need to get to the bottom of this.

  “Thanks for meeting me,” I say, stirring the iced coffee in front of me.

  “Is everything okay?” Mason frowns, watching my face with focused intent.

  “I’m not sure,” I share. “I told you about my new job with Castle.”

  Nodding, he waits for me to go on.

  “I have a few questions about the investment aspect of my gig.”

  I actually can’t believe it never occurred to me to pick Mason’s brain before. He works on Wall Street and would know the most about this shitty business.

  Mason sips his coffee. “What’s up?”

  “Tell me what you know about the company Rio Venture Corp.”

  My stomach drops when his eyebrow dips in confusion.

  “I can’t say I’m familiar with it.”

  “What? So you mean it doesn’t exist?”

  Mason throws his hand up at my rash reasoning.

  “Wait. Hold on, that’s not what I said. I’m pretty on top of the market but there’s a chance that one slipped under my radar. I’ve been out of the loop for the last couple of weeks since I’m on vacation. Just because I’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” he says.

  “But how likely is it that a company just spurts up overnight and has stock worth more than five hundred a share without you hearing a thing about it? I’m sure that would’ve broken through your vacation bubble.”

  Mason gnaws at his lip contemplatively. “What do you think is going on?”

  “I think my boss is misleading me with deceptive data and therefore misleading clients to invest in something that may not be viable.”

  That gets Mason’s attention.

  “What would he get from that? If the company isn’t viable like you suspect, what would he get by telling investors to put their money into it only for it to tank?”

  Good question.

  I have no idea what Edward could be getting out of this but I do know something isn’t adding up.