by A. J. Norris
If there had been doubt in Tessa’s eyes, it cleared with the passing of his words. She took her top off, then unbuttoned his silky shirt. The kiss she laid on his lips was gentle yet hard, unhindered by hesitation. This didn’t mean she’d accept his crazy proposal. She just needed to feel the warmth of his chest against her skin, immerse herself in the tingles that seemed to spawn from his fingertips.
Blake slid his hand to the nape of her neck, raveled his fingers into her hair. “Does this mean—”
“Shh.” Tessa guided Blake back in his seat and grabbed onto his belt. “When you’re running a hustle, it’s dangerous to talk too much.”
Instead of using his tongue to hurl sass back, he stuck it in her mouth while she unlatched his belt.
After recovering from the most mind-numbing, toe-curling orgasm Tessa ever experienced, she climbed off Blake’s lap. She didn’t say a word to him or look him in the eyes. She just grabbed her clothes, dressed at lightning speed, and walked across the office, leaving him in the wide chair behind his now disorderly desk.
A smile lingered on her lips as she strolled through the shadows of the vacant club. She disabled the alarm and slipped out the front door. The desert’s arid night air hit her in the face, but her smile held strong. It wasn’t the amazing sex she’d just had that lifted her spirits, at least not fully. Now that her unexpected desire for the mysterious Blake Pierce had worn off, her mind could contemplate that proposal of his.
Tessa climbed behind the wheel of her car and started the engine. The entire ride home had been a blur. She didn’t see the glow of the strip in the distance, hear the pre-dawn traffic around her as she drove. Her thoughts revolved around the hustle.
The cons she’d run were so large until Blake flipped a metaphoric switch and cast a light on how big the world really was. Washington, D.C., was an untapped treasure trove for people like her and Piper. The blackmail money alone would set them up for life, and blackmail was a small game in that town of sharks. The con men of Capitol Hill found legal ways to hustle. There were millions of dollars in contributions just waiting to be swindled by her and her sister. All they needed was an in, and Blake Pierce was looking like a pretty good doorway at the moment. The only problem was the whole marriage business. She loathed the Pierce family, couldn’t imagine becoming one of them.
The stucco on her townhouse shimmered in the headlights as she pulled into her driveway. Piper was on the front porch before Tessa could climb from the car. For four o’clock in the morning, her sister looked wide awake. She had on her Victoria’s Secret sweats and hiking boots, with her long hair tight in a bun, which meant her bags were packed and she was ready to hit the road. Piper was going to be pissed because Tessa wasn’t leaving this godforsaken city without landing a score of some kind.
“So,” Piper said as Tessa walked up the porch steps of their rental. “Where’s the cash?” Piper scanned Tessa’s empty hands, and Tessa’s stomach twisted into knots. “And what took you so long?”
The knots in Tessa’s tummy pulled so tight she actually doubled over a tad from the ache they left. “There was a…thing.”
“A thing?” Confusion clouded Piper’s stare, as it should. This was the first time Tessa returned home empty-handed on a score night. Although, a lot of firsts occurred this night.
“I got busted,” Tessa mumbled, shame taking her gaze down.
“What!” Piper’s squawk echoed around the cul-de-sac of tightly packed houses.
The neighbor’s dog barked, a few porch lights clicked on down the block, and Tessa shuffled Piper toward the house. “You’re gonna wake the neighborhood.”
“So what.” Piper stopped in the open doorway of their townhouse, blocked Tessa from entering. “We’re leaving, right now, before the law or mobsters get here…right?”
Piper was straining to maintain her usual confident big sister stare, but the fear in her eyes shone through clear enough for Tessa to see.
“Come inside.” Tessa guided her sister into the house and shut the front door behind them. “Let me at least tell you what happened. Then you can decide if you wanna freak out or not.”
Tessa sat on the couch in her living room, watching her sister pace in front of the coffee table. She had told Piper everything, well, almost everything. She left out the rough kissing, clothes coming off, hands caressing her bare skin. That stuff wasn’t important. The prospect of tasting Blake’s soft lips again couldn’t sway her decisions. She wouldn’t let it. The job had to be what mattered.
“Oh…my God.” Piper froze in the middle of the room and gawked at Tessa.
Leather crinkled as Tessa sunk lower on the couch. “What?”
“You’re gonna do it.”
There was nothing Tessa could say. She’d be a fool not to consider this proposal. It was everything she craved. This was her chance to bring the rich and powerful to their knees, with the bonus opportunity to explore more of Blake’s intriguing mind and rock-hard body.
Piper stomped in front of Tessa, glared down at her. “You’re gonna ditch me, run off with a Pierce.”
“This is about us.” Tessa reached for her sister’s hand, only to have that hand yanked from her grasp.
“I thought you liked the hustle.”
“I do.”
Piper slumped onto the couch beside Tessa. “This is a long con. You’ll have to be the picture-perfect Mrs. Blake Pierce for years. Live in the same place, pull the same job.”
It was all true. Tessa didn’t like repetition, couldn’t stand waking to the same scenery every morning. This current job, a petty strip club, had been the longest one she’d pulled in a while. She could’ve hit the safe months ago, but wanted to keep watching Blake. There were six cameras hidden around his condo and another one in his office, yet she still hadn’t been able to unlock the secrets of his complex mind. Tonight, she had gotten a glimpse into his thought process. Blake seemed completely devoid of any desire on the outside, but inside he craved power the way one does oxygen. There were even more layers to him, and she was desperate to peel them back.
Tessa forced any trace of emotion from her stare and looked at her sister. “We’ve been operating on a small scale, taking big risks for shit pay. If we do this and pull it off, everything our family lost, everything we’ve done will be vindicated.”
“This has nothing to do with our family’s name.” Piper jumped up from the couch, crossed her arms. “This is about the Pierce guy you’ve been stalking for the last three months. You totally fell for him. I should’ve known you’d do something like this. You’ve always been a hopeless romantic, just like Dad. You’ll probably run off and take care of yourself like he did too.”
The words hit Tessa like a slap. Piper had always been her top priority, and no job or man would change that.
“Piper,” she called out as her sister practically ran out of the living room. She didn’t chase Piper. Her sister was too angry, and she was too hurt for any conversation between them to end well.
The front door creaked open then slammed shut. When the car started and tires squealed away, a stabbing ache tore through Tessa’s chest. She wanted this job, wanted the thrill of a new venture, wanted…Blake, but not bad enough to sacrifice her sister.
A buzz vibrated the phone in Tessa’s pocket. She pulled her cell from her jeans, glanced at its screen, and groaned.
Blake: Lunch at Justina’s?
Tessa stared out the window behind her, at the empty driveway. Not money, power, or the enchantment of a con was worth more than the bond her and Piper shared. She wouldn’t even trade her sister’s happiness for love if such a whimsical emotion did actually exist.
The respond blinker on her phone’s text box flashed, faster than her heart’s pound. She was out of this con. For her sister’s peace of mind, she wouldn’t peek into the lives of the family she vowed to dismantle, wouldn’t steal America, wouldn’t…have a chance to discover why her knees quaked so hard when Blake’s hands touched her body.
Me: Noon.
Tessa clicked the screen on her phone off and tossed it at the foot of the couch. She lay back, pulled a fleece blanket over her bare shoulders, and snuggled against the couch cushions.
Hours had passed while Tessa slept, and still, Piper hadn’t returned home. Her sister wouldn’t reply to the many apology texts she sent either, but Facebook had her pinned at the Venetian. It was Piper’s favorite casino. Her sister was probably making a killing at the craps tables in between chilling at the hotel’s spa, without her.
After a hot shower, and with only thirty minutes to spare, it was clear Tessa wouldn’t have a ride to the restaurant. Just as she opened her Uber app to schedule a lift, a knock shook the door.
A hint of panic ran through Tessa. Everyone she knew, which was only her sister, had a key to this townhouse. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time anybody knocked on her front door. She peeked out the living room window on her way toward the foyer. A long black limousine sat at the curb outside her house, shimmering in the harsh Nevada sun. There was only one person she could think of who sported their own limo, equipped with an ex-Marine personal driver.
Tessa opened her front door and there was Blake, standing on her porch. One dose of his dark eyes in the day’s light, and a smile popped onto her lips. She forced her grin back, though nothing could be done about the cyclone of butterflies that now whirled in her stomach.
“You look…” Blake’s stare clung to the thin sundress hanging on Tessa’s body. “Confused. Was I not supposed to pick you up?”
“I…” Tessa wasn’t sure what to say. This was meant to be a business lunch, yet it felt like a date. What really stunned her was how much she actually enjoyed the date feeling that hovered over her.
“I appreciate the lift.” She grabbed her purse, now weighed down by the gun tucked inside it, and walked onto the porch.
The door clicked to a close behind Tessa and her shoulders flinched. Fortunately, Blake was too busy gawking at her legs to notice her highly unusual, and extremely unprofessional, skittish behavior. She had to get her head in the game. The man in front of her was dark, rich, and sexy. In her experience, that equaled danger.
“Shall we?” Tessa said as she strolled toward the limo.
Neither of them said a word once shut inside the spacious car. They both sat at the far ends of the wide leather seat at the back of the limo. The silence seemed to create a barrier of awkwardness, one that Tessa planned to shatter. She was a badass, a femme fatale, and she called the shots in every situation.
Tessa turned to face Blake, only to find his stare locked on her. Her every thought became jumbled as she gazed into his deep eyes. She’d been mistaken. It wasn’t awkwardness that built between them. It was sparks.
“Have you given any thought to my proposal?”
“I have.” Tessa had done nothing but think about his proposal, and the way his lips had glided against her skin when she rode his lap in that dark office of a vacant strip club. “I don’t think you’re going to like my answer.”
Blake shifted in his seat. “It’s the marriage thing.”
“Well—”
“What if I forgo a prenup?”
At first, Tessa thought Blake had been joking, but he looked dead serious.
“Why would you do that? You’re worth—”
Blake pressed the switch on the control panel beside him. The tinted privacy divider slid up, sealed them away from the car’s driver, and Blake slanted close to Tessa.
“I know how much money I’m worth,” he said, his warm breath flowing over Tessa’s cheek. “And you can have it all.” He sat back in his seat, yet kept his gaze on Tessa. “If you help get me into the Oval Office.”
This opportunity had just entered the too-good-to-be-true realm. There had to be an angle to Blake’s con, one that most likely left Tessa high and dry. “You don’t need me to pull this off. You can get any girl with a blank past, and you obviously have no problem digging up dirt on people.”
“Digging up dirt is easy. But due to my disability, I can’t pick up on social cues. I don’t know how, or when to use the dirt I have to get what I want. Like last night. I didn’t realize you were interested in me sexually until you were halfway across my desk.”
Tessa looked away from Blake, hid her smirk behind a lock of her wavy hair. “To be fair, I didn’t realize I was interested in you sexually until I was halfway across your desk either.”
An uninvited pulse of desire flared within Tessa. She had to end this game with Blake before he broke her resolve. “Your offer is amazing, but I can’t accept. My sister and I have plenty of money, and we have no problems getting more if we run out.”
Now it was Blake who smirked, and Tessa practically melted at the sight. She’d never seen a genuine smile on his face, didn’t think his dimples could be so captivating.
“You don’t know much about politics, do you?” His dark eyes lit up as he leaned close to Tessa. “It’s a whole new level of stealing. The blackmailing and hustles are just stepping stones, to get us in the big house. Then the real fun begins.” He squirmed in his seat, as if jolted by tiny electric shocks. “Instead of swindling pocket cash from politicians, we’ll be taking commodities from entire countries.”
A surge of heat spread beneath Tessa’s skin, stung her cheeks. The man beside her was calculating, diabolical, and could possibly be her soulmate. He was every bit like the princes she imagined in her fairytales, and he was there to whisk her off to her dream life of never-ending cons and perpetual hustles. Except, he was the sworn enemy of her family, and he didn’t even know it.
“Piper,” she said in a whisper, almost as though to remind herself that her sister and their vow of vengeance existed.
“Of course your sister would be welcomed on staff, in the public eye. Personally, she can handle the side funds, since she has the laundering connections.”
Tessa leaned away from Blake, hardened her stare on him. “You planted cameras in my townhouse?”
“Not as many as you planted in my condo.”
The games Blake played were deadly and exhilarating. It sent an ache into every part of her body. Only his strong hands could quell that throb, which stemmed from her chest and traveled to her toes. If his hard body pressed against her own, her mind would stop whirling and she’d be able to think up a way to persuade her sister to fall in line.
Tessa ran her finger across her bottom lip, down her chin, and along the side of her neck. “Are you picking up on this social cue?”
A sly grin spread across Blake’s face as he pressed the intercom button on the control panel beside him. “Circle the block a few times, Riggs.”
Before Tessa could smile, Blake gripped her hips. He pulled her close. Their chests pressed together and every trace of oxygen swept from her lungs. His kiss came quick, replacing the need for air with a desire to have his lips on more of her skin.
A tongue teased Tessa’s mouth, and rough palms rode along her sides. She didn’t know if she could resist Blake, wasn’t sure if she even wanted to. His body felt too perfect against her own, his world too inviting.
“I’m going to do this,” Blake said as he eased between Tessa’s legs. “With or without you.” His hand slid up her thigh, lifted the bottom of her dress to her waist. “I’d just like to do it with you.”
There were so many things Tessa wanted to do with Blake. Having sex with him again was definitely one of them, and it was going to happen—right now—in the back of this moving vehicle. The other things depended on how much pressure it took to break Piper.
Blake waited until Tessa smoothed down her hiked up dress to signal his driver, through the intercom, to park at the restaurant. He was either a perfect gentleman or used to nailing women in the back o
f his limo.
The car rocked to a stop in front of Justina’s Restaurant, and Tessa pulled her cell phone from her purse. There were no missed calls, no texts from Piper. Her sister was still at the Venetian, tagged in a photo at the craps table five minutes ago.
“Still up for a bite?” Blake asked, and Tessa raised a brow. She’d just bitten quite a few things, gently of course. She could still taste his salty flesh on her lips, smell his musky scent in her hair.
“Of food,” he added when catching her cheeky smile.
“No.” Tessa tucked her phone back into her purse. Blake’s gaze was full of hope. It made his usually cold face seem extra warm, and drove Tessa’s senses into overdrive. “Actually, can you drop me at the Venetian?”
“Sure.”
The car started moving again, and Blake’s hopeful stare stayed on Tessa. He was waiting for an answer from her. She didn’t want to leave him on the hook, but couldn’t commit without Piper.
“Are you for real about the prenup?”
“Yes,” he said, without hesitation. “If you ever decide to leave me, our arrangement, you can have half of everything I own as a…severance package.”
That much money, and the title of ex-Mrs. Pierce would secure the only thing Tessa and her sister ever wanted: the return of their family’s position within society’s elite.
“What exactly do you want me and Piper to do?”
“Study every member of the Electoral College, learn their weaknesses, so we can press them at election time.”
It was the perfect job, one Tessa and her sister had been practically training for with their little cons.
“And after that?” she asked, straining to keep the rush of anticipation from cracking her voice. “If you win the presidency?”
A soft chuckle flowed from Blake’s lips, echoed around the long cab of the limo. “There’ll be many possibilities open to us if I win. We have four years before the election to dream about that, you, your sister, and I.”
