Someone cleared their throat beside us, but I didn’t give a fuck. I was in her universe, the one that controlled and spurred more of my demons than I could ever hope to harness.
“Sorry, I took so long,” I said to her, still locked in her eyes. “Mason needed something.”
Her lips pursed as her eyes roamed over my face. “Well, apparently it was a good talk.”
“Hmm,” I said, not wanting to discuss it in mixed company.
My eyes slid past her to the man who’d been flirting with her. When his eyes met mine, I warned him of every possible way I’d hurt him in one single look. He gave one very small nod that I doubted anyone else noticed and broke eye contact.
Alisa gestured over her shoulder. “Have you met Reid Thomas?”
“Don’t need to. Let’s go,” I replied, and I took her hand and started leading her away.
A hand came down on my shoulder before we made it more than a few feet. When I looked back, Alex was smiling at me in a forced manner.
“Well, if that didn’t throw up all kinds of flags and alarms to the family, I don’t know what else would have made it clearer. A lot of them are here tonight.”
“I don’t give a fuck, Alex. Like I said two weeks ago, I can’t give her up and won’t. Especially to that douchebag. Let me guess, friend of the family?”
A small frown passed across his face before it was gone again. “As much as I’d like to tell you that you’re wrong, I can’t. He’s the least of your worries, though. I warned you. You’d better be sure about this, Mick. If you break her heart…”
I leaned closer to him and smiled like we were sharing a joke. “If you want wedding bells tomorrow to prove something about me, you can have them, I’m there. But don’t ever fucking question me again about Alisa. You might know where to bury a body, but I know plenty of ways to make death seem like a better option than an hour spent with me in a dark room.”
He leaned back and took me in thoughtfully, continuing to smile as if we were having the most normal conversation. The initial hostility at being threatened, a natural response that anyone would have had, eventually ebbed and a look of wary respect took its place.
His eyes darted to Alisa, as she chatted with an elderly couple beside us.
“You know, I thought you might be the worst person she could have ever chosen to even talk to at one point, Mick. But I think when it comes to making my sister a priority, anyone willing to step toe to toe with my family or me, might be what she needs. Even if I don’t particularly like it.”
“I’m glad we’re in agreement,” I replied. “Now either punch me or give me a hard slap on the back like we’re best friends. I plan on taking my beautiful date out of here in less than thirty seconds.”
He slapped me on the back in a jovial manner. “You’re so fucked. Does she know you love her? Do you know it yet?”
I smiled like we were talking about the weather tomorrow. “Fuck off, Alex. I have enough shit on my plate without those kinds of questions.”
He leaned in again. “Be ready for anything, Mick. They’re cutthroat.”
I tapped him on the back in return. “I have no qualms about meeting them with everything I’ve got. Whatever it takes, just like you said.”
He nodded. “I think you’re finally getting it.”
“What exactly?”
“The line you might have to cross again.”
My eyes slid from his face, so he wouldn’t see my annoyance and settled on Alisa’s back. I gently pulled on her arm and she extracted herself from the conversation she was in.
Steering her through the crowd and out the door, we made our way to the car. After tucking her in to the passenger side, I slid into the driver’s seat. When I faced her, I let my hand roam up her leg until I reached the hem of her short dress.
She sucked in a breath and stared up at me with curiosity in her gaze.
“Still want to play the game you started, or are you going to be a good girl and tell me to stop?”
She swallowed hard, then surprised me by leaning in to wrap one hand around my neck as she sucked at my bottom lip. My balls clenched, and my semi-hard dick began to respond again.
“I want you. Is that the game we’re playing?” she whispered.
My hand slid up her skirt, her knees parting for me, and I found her soft center. Rubbing her clit, she whimpered into my mouth.
“That’s what we’re playing. But this is your final warning. Once I’m in here,” I said as I slipped a finger into her wet folds. “I’m never letting you go. You’ll never be able to leave without me right behind you.”
Her gasp on my intrusion told me she was hungry for what I wanted to do to her. It spurred thoughts of so many fantasies I’d had about her over the last couple of weeks. I wondered how far she’d go to make them a reality, hoped that she’d say yes to every single one and knew if she did, I’d make it my life’s mission to make sure she enjoyed it repeatedly without fail.
First things first, though. I slid my finger out of the wet heaven that wanted me and let it graze across her mouth. She opened and sucked on it, making me tense with a need to rush something I’d been wanting to do since I met her.
Withdrawing my finger from her mouth I kissed her gently. “Enjoy that?”
She shook her head. “I need more.”
I smirked. “Aww, my girl wants me between her legs.”
“Mick, don’t tease,” she said with a small pout.
Leaning away from her, I chuckled and started the car. “We need to eat first.”
“Eat? Are you kidding?” she asked, her voice an octave higher out of desperation.
I glanced at her as I drove down the street. The expression on her face was one of confusion and promised violence if I took her out, which amused me to no end as I took an irregular route toward a luxury hotel with a nice restaurant.
The torture was sweet, but so was her face when we pulled in front of the valet. Her eyes swept over the front of the building, then she smiled at me. A thousand angels would have wept at the sight of her in that moment. It was a mixture of excitement, happiness and pure joy. And I was the one she was bestowing it upon.
Chapter Twelve
Alisa
I was relieved when we pulled up in front of the hotel. I wasn’t sure if he’d changed his mind or if he’d meant eating here the entire time.
Whatever the case, I planned on demanding some things when we got to a room. After the gallery and the car tease, I was getting restlessly angry with him for not following through. My powers of seduction might be nothing compared to his, but I was trying. And the truth was I wanted him in the worst way.
After he’d mentioned it, thinking back on the last couple of weeks, he’d tried to make conversation with me when he’d come out of the study. I was too focused on the shift in attitude from him to see it for what it was at the time, and that felt like time lost with him. That was on me. If he wanted this to work his way, though, he’d have to open up and talk about more than just his favorite movies and what we both liked to eat.
Those small details were important. I wasn’t discounting the fact that I loved onions and he didn’t, or that his favorite movies were action based rather than my comedy leanings. There were a lot of things that were nice to know. But it wasn’t what I truly wanted to learn about him.
I wanted everything. It might have been wishful thinking that he'd open up about his past. The one that I couldn’t find on the internet, the one that haunted him. Maybe I’d been moving things forward too soon and he wasn’t ready for it.
What I knew now, that I didn’t when I met him, was that I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend my time with. That an occasional laugh from him meant the world to me. Catching his dark brown eyes on me, when he didn’t think I was looking, and seeing something like reverence in his face pulled at my heart in ways that I’d never felt.
Whether he knew it or not, he made me feel alive when he was being himself. Like
I was a woman, desired, cherished, and worth more to him than collateral in a political sphere like my family.
I liked him. Maybe even loved him, but for reasons I couldn’t explain or pinpoint. He was both gentle and rough. Sweet and naughty. Aggressive and giving. So many polar opposites wrapped into one person.
I’d thought he was complex, but it really didn’t encompass everything. There was some intricate design to the man in the way he thought and expressed himself. I couldn’t begin to unravel it and wasn’t sure if I ever would. It settled in my chest that it was okay if I couldn’t figure everything out about him, but I needed to know at least a small amount of the complex parts if he wanted something more than just a casual relationship. And I wouldn’t settle for anything less with him. I wanted something more. If in my probing, he refused, I wasn’t sure if I could take the man without knowing at least a little bit of his soul.
The valet opened my door, but it was Mick’s hand that slid into mine to help me out of the seat. Once standing, his hand slid around my waist as he guided me inside. The white marble floors gleamed in the light thrown from the large chandelier above us. Footsteps and chatter from guests echoed across the enormous room, as an elevator chimed, the doors opening to a couple that was dressed for a night on the town.
My heels clicked as we made our way across the lobby to the entrance of the restaurant. It was the type of place that my father probably had brunch in with some associate or client. Neat champagne colored linen, candles, cutlery precisely placed, tables for the casual diner and private booths on a second floor overlooking the tables below. The low lighting made it cozy, but elegant for dinner guests or the single drinker around the lighted glass bar.
The hostess greeted us, but only had eyes for Mick. Something I’d gotten used to whenever we were out together.
Even at the art gallery, there were looks, some innocent, some full of debauchery and I couldn’t really blame them. His appearance rivalled anyone I’d met in my life. The suit, the shirt, his height and broad shoulders, his dark hair and eyes, the look of dominance on his trimmed but unshaven face.
Even in heels, he was still much taller than me. But it was his presence that said more than what appearances did. He filled a room with a darker and possibly dangerous demeanor, his eyes roaming as if directly searching for a threat.
It’d been the same at the club, I realized, but I’d been too nervous to really see it until tonight.
As we followed the waitress to the stairs and began to climb, I leaned into him.
“You know, I think that the other guests might start evacuating soon if you keep scowling at everyone.”
He smirked at me. “I’m not scowling. Just checking the room. Old habits.”
We were shown to a booth high enough above the diners below that we had an aerial view. I glanced around the room before sliding into my seat set back from the glass rail. Mick slid in beside me and waived off the menu when offered.
“Whiskey, neat. Margarita. Top shelf,” he said and glanced at me. “Steaks and oysters I think.”
He stood to unbutton his jacket and discuss something with the pretty hostess that still had eyes on him. I scanned the rest of the second floor wondering why there weren’t many people seated on this particular level given the view.
He sat again and ran a hand down my back. “Was the food okay with you?”
I nodded as the hostess drifted away. “I’ve never eaten oysters.”
“They’re an acquired taste. I thought you might like to try something new.”
I grinned at him. “All of this is new. I’ve never been here.”
“I’ve been here once. Mason dragged me out of the house. He said the best view in the place was here.”
“Mason came here?” I asked, a little shocked.
“He brought a date or something once. It was probably some woman he needed to impress in order to take her home.”
I laughed. “Your brother is a complete womanizer, but I still love him. I don’t think anyone could possibly hate him.”
He tilted his head to the side and considered me. “I’m sure there’s a list of women that would disagree. What is it about you and thinking the best of complete jackasses?”
Our drinks arrived, and I took a sip of mine. “What do you mean?”
“You look past things that would normally piss most women off. Mason for instance. You accept him for what he is and don’t care. The same is true for me and my nature.”
I chewed on my lip, debating my response. “I think there’s more than a little bit of goodness in everyone if their intentions are earnest. That may not always manifest in the way we want, but it’s still there. Then there’s the other half of our nature that sometimes draws closer to corrupted things. That may be by design or accident, but it doesn’t make someone completely depraved.”
He sat back and smirked at my answer. “So according to you, if I wanted to get you in bed, but had the best of intentions, it wouldn’t be completely evil if I used every method at my disposal to get you there?”
I laughed. “Well if you drugged me then that’s different. But something like that, I suppose. You and your brother are, I wouldn’t say perfect people, maybe a bit tarnished. But neither of you are evil. I think Alex is the same way. There’s good somewhere in everyone.”
A small frown shot across his face before his eyes scanned the room.
“You don’t believe me?” I asked.
He gave me a stiff smile. “I’ve known a lot of evil in the world. I can verify that there are some people that are too far gone to have any goodness in them.”
I hesitated while he sipped his whiskey. “Is that something you saw at your old job?”
He didn’t immediately answer, staring down at the amber liquid swirling in his glass. After a minute, he took a large drink and set the tumbler on the table.
“Yes. That was something I learned at my old job. There’s not a shred of good intent in some people.”
“Did you ever come across people that were maybe a bit of both?”
He laughed. “Yeah, coworkers. Not so much criminals. At least not the ones I went after. They could eat a man’s soul just looking at their deeds.”
“Did you have your soul eaten, Mick? Is that why you seem so sad sometimes?”
He straightened, finished his drink and waived at the waitress for another. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.”
My hand slid to his lap. “Mick?”
He gazed down at me with an almost panicked expression. I moved closer to him, running my hands up his chest as I placed a kiss on his neck.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He took a deep breath as his arm held me tightly against him. “Don’t be. There’s just some things I don’t know if I can tell you. I may never be able to. It terrifies me that you might forgive me for things I don’t deserve to be forgiven for.”
“Why?” I whispered against his neck.
“To accept those things and move past them, you’d also have to accept the burden of knowing those deeds.”
I rubbed my lips over his neck, wondering what he could possibly tell me that would be that bad. Not knowing a lot about what he did, it made my imagination flare with the possibility of bribery or false reporting. And sadly, he was right, I could forgive both.
“You’ll never scare me away, Mick. You might make me angry enough to leave you, but you’ll never scare me. I’m not sure what you were like before you came here…”
“A better man, a long time ago,” he replied flatly.
“Well, I don’t know that man, but I know this one. And I know that you’re still a good man, no matter what you’ve had to do to get here.”
“Alisa, you can’t understand.”
I leaned back and scowled at him. “You’re right, I don’t. What I do understand is the way you look at me. Like you’d never get tired of it. And the way you talk to me. It may be dirty or sometimes a little angry, but it’s h
onest. I want you to tell me what’s wrong, Mick, not because I wouldn’t see some evil offense for what it is. I’d see it. But I want you to trust me with some of what tears you up because I care about you.”
He sighed and tugged me into his lap. I sat with my face on his shoulder as our food was delivered silently.
“I can’t tell you some things, Alisa. It’s not that you wouldn’t listen, it’s that some of the things I’ve worked on were parts of cases that I can’t tell you about. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
He shifted before taking another drink. “Good. So, the other half of that is…well, I need you to understand that there are things that I’ve done that…I’m not…fuck.”
Emotions played across his face as he struggled to voice what was eating at him. It was clear to me that he was trying to let go of something in his past that wasn't ready to loosen its grip on him.
Finally, he said, “I’ve never felt so out of control in my life. Everything was always planned. Football, college, the academy. Even with work, I had a set routine. That system was really clear to me, helped my team put away a lot of bad men. I worked the facts over and over until I could see the little anomalies in things. If they existed, then they didn’t belong in the pattern and sometimes that led to clues.”
“Seems like a good talent to have.”
“It was. I guess still is, since I’m scowling at people downstairs. The part that I need you to understand, is that sometimes to see into the darkness it requires you to view things darkly. It changes you. I’m not the good man that I was, but I’m not the bad guy that I could be. I’m a cold bastard sometimes, and that rubs off on people.”
“You’ve never let it rub off on me. You can tell me things and it won’t hurt me.”
“You’re not understanding,” he sighed. “You make me feel things that I don’t handle well, and that make me a little insane sometimes. My obsessions take over my life, and in the past, have been the only things I can focus on. It was always about closing the case, finishing the job. No matter what I had to do to get there, no matter who got hurt or suffered, it happened. And for me, since I’m a cold man, it was easy to walk away once the day was done.”
Mick_Kingston Corruption Book One Page 13
