We said our goodbyes with hearty hugs, and a few parting jibes before I got into my car and drove away. I knew I would be okay at Ethan's engagement party. It wouldn't be pleasant, but I was secure enough in my recovery now that I could deal with it. No, it was something else entirely I couldn't wrap my head around and made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. It was the inexplicable effect that a sexy and irresistible temptress named Lu was having on me that I didn't know how to deal with at all. So I did the only thing I could, I simply chose not to.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
____________________
Lu
"Listen, Emilia," I told my sister calmly. "Everything's going to be okay." I stifled a sigh as I paced my kitchen with my phone to my ear. "I'm...They're going to find the killer. I promise." I flinched over my slip of words, but relaxed when she didn't seem to notice.
"I know," she replied dejectedly. "But I can't sleep at night, Lu." She sighed softly. "I...I keep seeing Tasha lying there every time I close my eyes." Her voice wavered with emotion.
"Mija," I said gently. "Maybe you need to talk to a therapist about this."
"I know," I heard a soft sniffle that broke my heart. "But my deductible is really high, and I can't afford it right now since I had to start paying my student loans a few months ago."
"I can help you," I told her sincerely since I knew her salary as a kindergarten teacher was shit, especially since she just graduated last spring.
"I can't keep borrowing and taking money from you, Lu," she said adamantly. "I'm out of school now and need to take care of myself, to pay my own way. You know?"
And there was my sister's stubborn backbone. Just like me, she didn't want a handout or to be anyone's charity case. We'd both gotten that from our mother, but I didn't want her to risk her mental wellbeing because she was too stubborn to accept help.
"Just think about it, okay?" I asked worriedly. "You've been through a trauma, and you might need help."
I heard her sigh, then say, "Alright."
Just then the intercom by the door beeped. "Hold on," I said as I walked over to answer it on autopilot, not thinking that Emilia was still on the line.
"Yes?"
"There's a Scott Conrad here for you, Miss Tavarez," announced one of the security guys that manned the front desk of my apartment building twenty-four hours a day. The place had great security, and was one of the reasons I chose the building, in addition to the private parking garage where my Challenger, my baby, was safe and sound.
It was Friday night, and Scott was here to pick me up. He had a case that took him out of town for most of the day, and he asked to meet me here so we wouldn't miss any time at the club tonight for our investigation. I'd agreed and gave him my address, even though it seemed a lot like a dating-type thing. I figured we already established the parameters of our non-relationship, and the fact that it was merely physical, so it was safe, but I didn't even think about my sister finding out anything about him.
"Go ahead and send him up, please," I replied with a grimace, then waited for my sister's reaction as the security guy ended the call.
There was nothing but dead silence on the line for a long moment.
"Hello?" I asked tentatively, a part of me hoping that she'd gotten disconnected before she heard anything.
"Who's Scott Conrad?" she asked in amusement-laced suspicion.
Shit. I couldn't tell her what I was really doing with Scott. I hadn't told her about the illegal investigation I was conducting. I wanted her to have plausible deniability if I got caught, and I didn't want to upset her by telling her the legit investigation hadn't gotten anywhere as far as I could tell either.
"Nobody," I responded hastily...too hastily.
There was another moment of silence before she spoke again. "Is this nobody the reason all your weekends have been occupied, and I haven't seen much of you lately?"
"I've just been busy," I blurted out.
"Busy doing nobody?" she asked, giving the word "doing" a lascivious tone.
"No," I denied fiercely.
"Oh yeah," she said teasingly in a drawn-out voice, clearly gleeful with this subject. "You don't usually let guys pick you up at your apartment, so that would make this nobody a somebody. Right? Somebody more than just a fuck-buddy perhaps? Somebody you've got it bad for? Like maybe a boyfriend?"
I said nothing, not wanting to lie to her by agreeing. I swear that it wasn't at all because I couldn't manage to spit out the words to deny it.
"Oh my God," Emilia said in an awed whisper. "You are seeing somebody, aren't you?"
The doorbell rang. Thank. You. God.
"Well, there's the doorbell. Gotta go, mija," I blurted out in a rush. "Talk to you later, love you, bye."
"Lu, wait-" Emilia was saying as I hit the end call button and cut her off.
I huffed out a breath of relief that was swiftly followed by guilt. Great, I was the world's worst big sister, but it was for her own good. She wouldn't have to lie for me if she didn't know the truth. Let her think Scott was my boyfriend. It was easier that way.
The doorbell rang again after I'd just stood there for a while. Shit. I hurried over to the door, unlocked it, pulled it open, and then stared up at Scott like an idiot. He was wearing the very same black suit, sans tie as usual, that he'd worn the first time I'd visited Désir Dangereux. It looked just as smoking hot as last time, maybe even better, since I knew exactly what he was packing underneath and how well he knew how to use it.
"Lu," he murmured, an odd note of longing in his tone that drew my attention away from his body to his face.
His eyes were soft as he stared at me with what seemed like an almost awed expression, and a strange warmth gathered in my belly. However, before I could register what I was seeing or feeling, that familiar infuriating smirk lifted a corner of his decadent mouth. His gaze slid down the coat I was already wearing over my dress for tonight, then turned lecherous. Did I imagine what I just saw when I first opened the door?
"Are you going to show me what hot as fuck dress you're hiding under there tonight, or are you going to torture me by making me wait?" He stepped forward and reached up toward the coat's top button with an eager look on his handsome face.
"Stop that," I snapped out as I batted his hands away and took a step backwards, confused and therefore irritated with his odd behavior from a moment ago.
"Come on, babe," he cajoled. "I can't take the suspense."
I shook my head at him. "Bastardo impaciente." Impatient bastard.
His eyes heated, and he bit his lower lip. The man really liked it when I spoke Spanish. He stepped closer as his lustful gaze seared into me. "At least give me a kiss if I can't see the dress yet."
Now we were definitely approaching uncomfortable date-like territory. I was not kissing him in my doorway. I stiffened and frowned up at him, and his expression instantly turned concerned.
"What's wrong, babe?" he asked worriedly as he rested his hands gently on my upper arms.
I really liked his hands there and how safe it made me feel, and that warm sensation flooded my belly again, followed by a sudden urge to fall into his arms, to let him hold me. I ignored it because it made no sense to me.
"Nothing," I replied in a dejected tone as I looked away.
"Hey," he said as he gently lifted my chin with his fingertip. "We've spent enough time together now that I'd like to think we're friends. You know you can talk to me."
I stared up at him as I considered my next words for a moment, since his behavior was confusing the hell out of me yet again, then sighed. "I just talked to my sister," I finally said, deflecting his question away from what was really bothering me since he was the cause. Besides, the idea of being friends with him was something I could actually understand.
"Is she okay?"
"She's struggling with what happened to Tasha and what she saw," I told him. "I'm worried about her."
"If she's even half as strong and badass
as you, then I'm sure she'll be fine," he said with conviction.
Shit, there was that warmth again. What the hell?
"Especially since she's lucky enough to have you for a sister looking out for her," he added as he rubbed my upper arms comfortingly. "It's your job after all."
"It is, is it?" I asked with a smile I couldn't suppress. "And what to you know about that?" I asked leadingly. Besides meeting his horrible mother, I really didn't know anything about his personal life, and I could admit I was curious.
"I have an older and younger brother," he replied with a wistful expression. "Ethan, Rory, and I have always had each other's backs." A frown abruptly turned his lips down and furrowed his brow. "Even when my parents haven't," he added bitterly in a low murmur as he looked away and stared off into space over my head. He looked lost, and I didn't like it. It pulled at me, and made me want to comfort him.
"Hey," I said sternly as I gripped his chin and forced him to look at me again. "What's wrong?" I asked softly.
"It's nothing," he replied in a subdued tone with a shake of his head as he shrugged one shoulder. "Just the usual family shit."
"If we're friends like you say, then you can talk to me too."
He sighed as he let go of my arms, and an odd bereft sensation fell over me. He walked past me into my apartment and ran a hand through his hair as he glanced around my small kitchen with its crisp white walls and cupboards, my frosted glass dining table, and pale hardwood floors. Then he looked across the room to my attached living area with my brown leather sofa and warm beige sisal rug. I'd chosen warm earth tones for my decor to soften all the stark white. He walked over to the large window next to the couch and took in the beautiful view of downtown twinkling in the darkness outside. It was another reason I'd picked my tenth floor apartment.
He sighed again and turned back to look at me with a pained expression. "You know how I told my mother that you were my girlfriend?" he said warily.
"Yes," I said as I arched a brow and walked toward him.
"Well, I went to my family's monthly dinner out together and my dear mother brought me a surprise blind date," he explained acerbically, "even though I told her I didn't want her to set me up with anyone, and I hadn't even corrected her about the whole girlfriend thing with you yet."
"What?" I asked in bewilderment. My mother was far from perfect, but she would never have done anything like that to me. What kind of mother set her son up with someone else when as far as she knew he was seeing someone else?
He made a disgusted face. "It seems she decided I need an appropriate date for my brother's engagement party when I told her I was bringing you."
"And by appropriate, she means not me," I said bitingly as anger bubbled up inside me. What a bitch. I disliked Scott's mother even more now.
"It doesn't matter how many appropriate things my parents try to foist on me, I still won't fit in the perfect little box they keep trying to shove me into," he snarled out bitterly, then shook his head. "I'm so fucking tired of being the inappropriate son," he grumbled under his breath as he looked out the window. His eyes glittered with emotion as he stared out at the city lights again. It pulled at my heart and made me hurt for him.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing or what came over me, but my heart suddenly took over and steamrolled my brain. "I'll go with you," I blurted out.
His gaze shot back to me with a wide-eyed stare of shock, that probably matched mine. "What?" he asked in a stunned voice.
"I'll go with you," I repeated before my brain could catch up with my mouth.
"You...you'd really do that for me?" he asked with a bewildered expression.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Wh...why?" he asked. "Why would you want to put yourself through that? I don't even want to put myself through it."
"Because that's what friends do," I answered, then gave him a wicked smile. "And besides, if I go with you, I can show your mother just how appropriate I can be."
A corner of his mouth turned up into that sexy and irresistible smirk of his. "I like the sound of that," he said impishly.
I watched as the darkness in his eyes from a moment ago faded away, and his face lit up with the wide and glorious smile he gave me. That weird warmth filled my belly again, and I didn't really understand it or why I'd agreed to go with him, but I knew one thing for sure. I'd done the right thing, because something told me he could use a friend, someone else to have his back, and for some reason, I wanted that someone else to be me.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
____________________
Lu
"Lu," Scott said into my ear in a low rough voice that I somehow heard over the loud music thumping all around us on the dance floor. He pulled me closer as we moved together, his hands sliding down my back to rest on the top curve of my ass. His erection bumped against my belly through his pants as we danced, our movements bringing back memories of the way it felt when he was thrusting deep inside me. Arousal throbbed and ached sweetly between my thighs as I wrapped my arms around his neck and breathed in his heady masculine scent. I didn't think I would ever get tired of how good he smelled.
"Scotty," I murmured in a needy tone.
"Oh, the things I want to do to you tonight, babe," he growled out. "I wanna strap you down, then fuck your mouth, your pussy, and paddle that sweet ass of yours before I fuck that too."
"Dios mío," I moaned out at his crass words. I wanted all of that. Badly.
"That's right, babe. I'm gonna be your king and your god tonight," he said with a fierce and undeniably sexy confidence. "And you'll be screaming my name before I'm done with you."
"Sí, mi Rey," I whimpered in reply.
"Buena niña, mi tentadora," he replied huskily in my ear. Good girl, my temptress.
Blistering heat seared through me at his sexy words, and pooled low in my pelvis. Okay, so I really liked it when he spoke Spanish.
He nuzzled the soft skin behind my ear, rubbing his sexy stubble against my tender flesh. His hands slid lower on my ass, cupping me in his big hands, and I had to fight the urge to jump up and wrap my legs around his waist, so I could ride him like a pony.
"At my ten o'clock by the entrance," he said, his voice suddenly all business now, and I had a moment of disorientation as I wondered what the hell he was talking about.
We were dancing near the edge of the dance floor, so Scott turned us so that I was facing the entrance instead. Oh yeah, we were watching for one of our suspects to come in tonight. Shit, I'd been so caught up in this man that I'd forgotten our whole purpose here. The worrisome thought that I was distracted because I was getting in too deep with Scott reared up inside my head.
"He's moving toward the bar now," Scott said, and I glanced over to my right to see our target.
I watched a tall and massively muscled man in his early forties and wearing a silvery blue suit stride toward the bar. The man's skin was a deep rich mahogany that gleamed under the club lights, and he was quite handsome too, with his shaved head and precisely trimmed black goatee. He had an air of calm authority and confidence that, in addition to his good looks, drew in every eye around him.
I knew who he was immediately, Malcolm Bishop, a well-off local entrepreneur and one of our three remaining suspects. He approached the bar and took a seat, then ordered a drink and turned on his stool to survey the club with sharp accessing eyes. Okay, so he wasn't handsome. No, he was seriously and ungodly gorgeous, and every woman nearby was staring at him now, some openly, others with more subtlety. Even a few men were checking him out. He was no Scott, but damn, I could see why people were gawking.
"I'm going to try to talk to him," I told Scott. Bishop was alone so it gave me a perfect opportunity to approach him and find out what kind of man we were dealing with here.
Scott's body stiffened, and his arms tightened around me. I glanced up to see a hard scowl upon his face like I'd never seen from him before. A second later, it faded and was replaced by
a blank emotionless mask as his arms relaxed. That was odd.
"Remember," he said gruffly, "you're a submissive, babe. You can't approach him aggressively like you would a john."
"I know," I answered with a nod. "I got this." I grinned up at him in an attempt to lighten his sudden surly mood. "I can fake just about anything, remember?"
His face came to life again, and a slow smirk pulled at his gorgeous mouth. "Not just anything, babe," he replied suggestively as his hands squeezed my ass. "Not with me anyway." He reached up to cup my cheek as his gaze captured mine. His eyes softened, and he ran his thumb over my lips in a slow and gentle caress. That strange warm feeling settled in my belly again.
"No," I whispered as I unconsciously leaned my face into his palm.
I lost track of time as we stared at each other, the warmth flowing through my entire body with a pleasant soothing buzz that felt so good, so right. A long moment passed before I abruptly realized that Scott and I had stopped dancing, and we were now standing stock still on the dance floor and sticking out like sore thumbs. I blinked and came back to myself just as Scott must have realized it too, because he suddenly yanked his hand away from my cheek with a confused and wide-eyed expression that swiftly turned stern.
"Better hurry before one of Bishop's circling sharks beats you to him," he said abruptly as he jerked his head back toward Bishop. His expression softened slightly as he rubbed one of my upper arms reassuringly. "I'll be close by in case you need me, babe. Okay?"
I nodded jerkily in acknowledgment, still thrown off by what just transpired between us, then watched Scott melt into the crowd and disappear. Damn he was good. He would have made a great cop.
I shook off any lingering confusion and focused on the job at hand. It was time to work, and I couldn't be preoccupied with thoughts of Scott right now. I turned my eyes on my quarry and made a beeline for the bar, my hips swinging provocatively with each step.
Halfway there, I caught Bishop's attention. His gaze fell on me and zoomed in on my chest with heated interest. My short black dress was almost scandalous tonight, the bodice consisting of two wide bands that crossed just below my neck and wrapped around my chest, barely covering my breasts and leaving their bottom edges in full view. The two bands formed the top of a large diamond-shaped opening that exposed the front of my body all the way down to just a few inches below my bellybutton ring.
Tempting Calm Waters Page 19
