He was proving a point? “You’re punishing me?”
He flattened his palm against her mound, pushed in just the right way against her clit and made her forget that she should be mad for a second. “I need you to promise that you won’t go running scared again.”
As much as she craved the orgasm that was so close and so far, she wasn’t the type to give in. “Or what? I’ll get more fantastic foreplay? I’’ll take my chances.”
Abruptly, he pushed her down until she was once again on all fours before him. Before she could glance over her shoulder to see what he was up to, the head of his cock pressed against her entrance.
She smiled in victory and pushed against him, but one of his big palms gripped her hips and kept her right where she was. “If you want to take your chances, feel free. You can leave right now.”
What? She was practically shaking with the need to have him inside her and he was telling her to go? “You’re bluffing…””
He leaned forward and gently bit her hip. The sting was just another reminder that he was calling the shots. “Try me,” he whispered.
“You son of a bitch,” she muttered as she once again tried to maneuver to get him inside her. “Yes, okay? I’ll do whatever you want. Just fuck m—”
Before she even finished, he slid into her in one smooth stroke. But instead of giving her a chance to adjust to his sudden intrusion, he gave her exactly what she’d begged and pleaded for.
She’d been so hot from his touch, it didn’t take much to push her over the edge. As she fell apart beneath him, he tensed as his strokes came faster and faster. One palm rested on the bed to hold him up while the other arm wrapped around her waist to hold her tightly against him as his own orgasm took over.
Victoria tried to catch her breath, and Dean slowly lowered her onto the bed, kissing her shoulder. She smiled at his touch, still caught up in the high that only came after really good sex.
He pulled her against him, and she relaxed into his hold. For a moment, she just appreciated his touch as sleep crept up on her.
“Are you staying the night?” He maneuvered the blanket around him.
As tempting as it was, she knew sleeping over was out of the question. “Dad’s funeral is tomorrow and they’re reading the will afterwards. I need to get to the church early to make sure everything looks okay.”
He nuzzled his face into her neck and for the first time, talking about her father’s funeral didn’t make her want to cry.
“Did you want me to go with you?”
“I would love it,” she said honestly. “But you shouldn’t.””
“I don’t mind. I can move some things around.”
The poor guy probably wouldn’t have any business left after all the moving around he’d done for her. “It’s not that. The press is going to be there and I don’t want any more attention than necessary.”
“They’re at his funeral? What the fuck?”
She shrugged. “I’m used to it. The city loved him, you know? I’m looking it as a sign of how many people want to be there for us. Even if it is just through pictures in the newspaper. Besides, you need to deal with Katy tomorrow anyway.”
He groaned. “What the hell am I supposed to do with her?”
“Teenagers aren’t exactly my forte, but I’d assume you do the same thing with her as most other women. You listen. She’’s never done anything like this before. She had reasonable, if teenager-y, logic for what she did. It’s important that she knows she can count on you to call in the future. What if I didn’t answer my phone?””
He shuddered against her back. “I’m trying my best not to think about the what-ifs,” he said.
“Probably best,” she said. The what-ifs were the scariest parts of life. The very reason she’d driven off without Dean that morning. She closed her eyes and tried to push the thoughts out of her mind. No more what-ifs. She’d promised, even if under duress, that she’d give this a chance. “I can stay for a few hours,” she whispered. The missed sleep would be worth it to stay in Dean’s arms.
“How are you getting back home?”
“Gordon will arrange someone to pick me up.”
“Your new bodyguard?” asked Dean with an obvious hint of jealousy.
“What’s wrong? Can’t take a little competition?”
In a flash, he had her rolled onto her back as he loomed over her. “Oh, I can handle competition,” he assured her. He caught her wrists in his hand, raised them above her head, and his eyes immediately fell to her raised breasts.
She jutted her chin and smiled up at him. “Prove it.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Victoria let out a breath of relief as the elevator dinged and opened to the Green & Sons corporate offices. Jace silently followed behind her, just as unobtrusive as Gordon promised when he recommended she hire him.
But so far there’d been no hint that anyone was still after her. She didn’t know how much longer she could have Jace or Gordon following her around. Either she’d have to figure out who tried to kill her in the first place, or she’d have to simply hope it never happened again.
And she wasn’t the hoping type.
She gave Jace a nod outside of Gordon’s office. “You can take a break. I’ll call you when I’m leaving the office,” she said.
He nodded before he strode away. The definition of a man of few words.
She walked into Gordon’s office without knocking. What she had to discuss was too important to wait.
But Gordon was professional enough not to show any annoyance. “Ms. Green. Jace said the day was uneventful.”
She wouldn’t say that, considering the funeral and the army of lawyers she’d faced at the will reading. But in terms of people wanting her dead, then yes, it was rather boring. “I need to know where we stand on the investigation.”
Gordon pulled a stack of papers from the file. “Using the outside cameras at the North Carolina plant which we discreetly viewed, we were able to track down the man who cut your brakes.”
Victoria perked up. “You got him?”
“Not exactly,” said Gordon. “He’s an addict with a record half a mile long. He was just a hired hand.”
“Can he at least tell you who hired him?”
Gordon shook his head. “He doesn’t know. Everything was done online, initiated through a public computer service with no cameras. We have a list of people who used the computers that day, but since half the customers paid cash, it might be a dead end.””
“So that’s it? We found the guy and still have nothing?” How much longer was she supposed to be looking over her shoulder? She had the best people in the country working on this and they were right back at square one!
“I wouldn’t say nothing.” He handed her a piece of paper. “We were able to trace the deposit made to your North Carolina attacker’s account. It’s registered to a Casey Jones, so we’re thinking fake. Unless you know of any Joneses who want you dead that you neglected to tell me about.”
She looked over the paper he handed her, but not much of it made any sense to her. It seemed like the money bounced through a series of bank accounts before it ended up at its final destination.
“So this Casey is the one who started it all?” She handed the paper back to Gordon.
“I found the bank where the account was opened. The bank manager agreed to discreetly send us over the video footage from that day. We have the exact time that the account was activated, so it should be easy to get a visual on whoever this Casey is.”
She raised a brow. How much did it cost to get bank managers to “discreetly” hand over video footage? “Sooner is better than later,” she muttered. “So I found out who the company is going to.”
Gordon kept his face blank. “Yeah? What’s the verdict? Are you still my boss?”
“I am ninety-nine percent your boss.” She grinned.
Gordon simply nodded and held out a hand. “Glad to hear it.”
She shook his hand
, allowing herself to revel in the fact that Green’s truly was hers. Not just a temporary position given to her by her father, but truly hers. And it would be until she died or sold it.
“So how did Terry take it?”
“Okay, I guess. I don’t know how you cope with hearing something like that. Dad was…harsh. Terry got our property in Florida, but almost everything else went to me.””
“So that’s why you came barging in here then.”
She nodded. “If there’s any chance that it was Terry who wanted me gone, I need to know.” Her will as it stood left a few set amounts to charities, but everything else went to her father. Now that he was gone, she needed to write Terry out of it as soon as possible. Of course, then she’d have to find some way of letting him know that killing her wouldn’t get him anything…
No. Terry wasn’t trying anything. She was a hundred percent sure that he wasn’t behind any of the attacks.
Even so, she wanted to get this whole business behind her. “When do you think you’ll have the video?”
Gordon looked down to his watch. “He said by the end of the day, so should be before five. Sometime within the hour. Then I’ll go through and isolate the time and send the images over to you later this evening.”
“That will work. Did you get the other information I called about this morning?”
Gordon handed her a folder. “Here you go.”
“Thanks, Gordon.” She turned to leave. Hopefully this was the mastermind behind the attacks and not another lackey. Victoria couldn’t live under constant surveillance. She wanted to work, but there was one more stop to make before she could get anything else done. She dialed Jace and told him to meet her in the lobby.
~~~~~
Dean tentatively pushed open the door, not sure what he should expect to find. He sure as hell wasn’t expecting to be confronted with the smell of food. Damn good food, too.
“Katy?” He crossed into the kitchen, where the table was set with a pretty fantastic looking steak.
“You’re home. Great timing!” She ran down the stairs.
He was relieved to see her looking more like herself in jeans and a blue shirt with some sort of black pattern on it. No more dresses and makeup that made her look as if they were the same age.
“I made you dinner,” she said enthusiastically as she ran past him to pull a beer out of the fridge and handed it over. “Here you go.””
If this was her version of an apology, who was he to turn it down? “It looks great.” He set down his work bag and took a seat.
She sat across from him at the small table and he could tell she was trying her best to be normal.
But the awkwardness crept in. He’d tried to think of what to say to her all day. Ways to yell at her. How to punish her. But instead, all he could think about was Victoria’s advice. Listen. “Do you want to tell me what happened last night?”
Her lips tightened and a bit of sadness crept into her face.
Shit. He didn’t want to see her sad. He wanted her to never do this again, but not because she was sad, damn it.
“Did Victoria tell you the details?” she asked softly.
“Screw the details.” He leaned forward. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I…I felt stupid. I didn’t want to see your face when I told you the mess I got into.”
Well, how the hell was he supposed to yell at her after that? “You need to trust me. I am pissed. Completely pissed. But that doesn’t mean I’’d want you in danger for even one second, you know.”
“Luckily Victoria answered,” she muttered as she took a sip of water.
He nodded. “About that…we were both pretty surprised you had her personal cell phone number.”
“That,” said Katy, “was completely innocent.”
“You stealing a phone number out of my phone is innocent? It’s not like I read your diary when you kept it hidden behind your dresser.”
Her eyes widened. “You found that!”
“But I didn’t read it. Because I am an awesome brother.”
She grinned at him and for a second the dinner wasn’t quite so awkward. “Well, by now you know about the guy.”
He gritted his teeth at the mention of the douchebag who’d played Katy and Becky against each other. “I think it’s safer if we don’’t talk about the guy.”
“Well, there was a reason we started hanging out. He graduated from King Academy and he was helping me look into scholarships.”
Dean frowned. “What the hell is King Academy?”
Katy let out a small laugh. “It’s one of the best prep schools in the country. If I can get in for even my senior year, I will basically have my pick of colleges. Since Nate”—Dean frowned—“that guy graduated from there, he was helping me out.”
Dean shook his head. “I’m glad your motives were good, but that doesn’t excuse anything.”
“This is my life we’re talking about, Dean. I’m sorry I lied and I promise I’m not going to do anything like that again, but I can’t stop talking to him about this. Even if I get hurt in the short run, this is the big game I’m looking at.”
“And you thought Victoria would help you get in?” he clarified.
“I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have her number around,” she said.
He took a bite of the steak and took a moment to savor the taste. Katy did know how to cook a mean side of beef. It was especially hard to be mad at her now. “Tell you what. You get a pass. You’ve never done anything like this before and even though you were stupid about it,”” he said with a pointed glance, “your heart was in the right place. But if you do it again, there’s going to be hell to pay.” He took another bite. Just the right amount of seasoning… “Oh yeah, I changed the password on my phone. So if you try that shit again, a picture of you is getting sent straight to my email.””
“Noted.” Katy pushed food around on her plate. “So what’s going on between you and Victoria now?” He narrowed his eyes at her, but she continued. “I know she stayed last night. I heard her leave at, oh, four o’clock in the morning.””
Shit. So much for being discreet.
“I talked to her about you. She seems really into you.”
As much as Dean wanted to talk about anything else, he couldn’t help himself from asking, “What did she say?”
“Not much,” assured Katy. “But, I could tell. I think she’s good for you.”
Dean nodded. “I think you might be right. This will affect you, you know? She’s not some random hookup down the street. She’s in the papers, people care about her……”
“And she lives in the city. That’s a long drive,” pointed out Katy.
“What does that mean?” He hadn’t given much thought to the long distance aspect of it. Mainly because she wasn’t actually all that far away, but the traffic could turn a thirty-minute drive into a two-hour long debacle.
“I’m saying that if you and Victoria do get serious, it’s not like she can quit her job and move out here.”
It all clicked into place. Katy wasn’t asking because she was worried about him and Victoria seeing each other. “King Academy is in Manhattan, isn’t it?””
Katy shrugged. “It’s a win-win.”
“Tell you what. I was planning on surprising her with a visit tonight. I’ll mention the school thing to her and see if she has any connections.”
Katy’s face lit up and for the first time, Dean truly realized the benefits of being with someone like Victoria. The doors she could open for him and his sister. Even if one of those benefits meant uprooting so Katy could be closer to her dream school.
But that was something he’d worry about later. For now, he just wanted to eat his steak and enjoy the peace with his sister.
His eyes closed as he took another bite. Yep. This was a damn good steak.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Victoria stared up at the skyscraper in front of her. Farrell Corp, a chemical manufacturer, was similar to her
own company. The corporate office only took up one floor, but they had revenue in the billions. Now all she had to worry about was getting past security.
“What are we doing here, ma’am?” asked Jace from beside her.
She rolled her eyes. She’d told him fifteen times to call her Victoria, but he was dead set on the formal ma’am. Probably a few too many years in the army. ““We’re making new friends,” she answered. “Come on.”
She led the way into the building and all the guards in charge of checking in guests eyed them. Well, they eyed Jace mostly.
“Are they going to let us up?” asked Jace.
“Probably.” She smiled at the nearest of the guards. “Hello. I’m Victoria Green and I’m here for Nathaniel Farrell.”
The guard looked between her and Jace before he punched some keys on the keyboard. “I don’t have you down for an appointment, Ms. Green.”
“If you could call up and tell his assistant I’m here, I’d be eternally grateful.”
The look he gave her told her exactly what he thought of her gratefulness, but he did pick up the phone. “Hello, I have a Victoria Green down here and she would like to speak with Mr. Farrell.” There was a pause as he listened to the voice on the other end. ““She does appear to be the real Victoria Green.”
She shot Jace the “I Told You So” look and then smiled back to the guard.
“I’ll send them right up.” He hung up the phone. “Go to the sixty-third floor and the reception desk is right outside the elevator.”
“Thanks so much.” Victoria and Jace passed the guard station and found the elevator bay.
“Must be nice,” muttered Jace.
Wow. He was speaking casually. That was a definite improvement. Even if it was a bit passive-aggressive. “Sometimes a girl needs to get things done.”
He reverted back to silence as they rode the elevator up, and she was fine with that. She needed to get her bitch face on.
Mr. Farrell’s receptionist waited for them when the elevators opened. “Ms. Green. What an unexpected surprise. If we’d known you were coming, we would’’ve been able to prepare the main conference room for you.”
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