When Alex Was Bad

by Davis, Jo

  Palmer’s going to eviscerate me.

  With a chain saw.

  Jenna leaned against the mantel, acting very much like a woman in the driver’s seat. “I would’ve done Alex for free, you know. I got to screw the blond hottie’s brains out and work on a career-making defense, because you talked him into taking me on. Now you know what I think? I’ll bet you’ve got a bigger agenda than merely distracting him. I want to know what’s going on. What are you planning to do to Alex and who’s paying for all of this?”

  Cold sweat broke out all over his body. He moved to stand right in front of her and reached out to clasp her neck. Deceptively gentle, he skimmed the base of her throat with his thumb.

  “Jenna, dear. Listen to me,” he whispered. “You need to stop asking questions that will prove hazardous to your health. Do you understand?”

  Her face went white. “Y-You! You’re the one trying to kill Alex!”

  “I don’t want Alex to die,” he said sadly. “I’m stuck in a situation over which I have no control. Just like you. Want to live? You’ll be a good girl and be available to do what you’re told.”

  “And if I go to the police?”

  “By morning, you’ll be at the bottom of the Mississippi River in a Hefty bag. We clear?”

  She jerked her chin up and down, eyes huge and stark in her face.

  “Good. I’ll call you later with instructions.”

  Unless they were both dead by nightfall.

  He saw her out, then went straight to the phone. His knees gave out and he dropped onto the sofa, running a hand through his hair. The hated voice answered all too soon, listening as he related Jenna’s visit.

  A nerve-racking silence followed. At length, Palmer spoke. Calm, as though murder was the last thing on his mind.

  “We’re out of time. Luckily for you, I have a plan in place to fix this, kill several birds with one stone.”

  He swallowed, praying he wasn’t one of the birds.

  “Tell Henry to invite our usual crowd to his estate outside the city for a party this weekend,” Palmer went on. “Drinks, plenty of beautiful bodies to enjoy, all of the wickedness our clients desire. We’re going to bait our hook. Have Miss Shaw get Quinn there, whatever she has to say.”

  “She’ll be able to play upon their duty to make certain their client doesn’t get himself into more trouble, I’m thinking.”

  “Precisely. And make certain Henry spreads news of the party through all of our underground channels. If Seraph is anywhere near, he’ll attend because he needs me. Slaves don’t survive well without their masters. When he shows, give him something to make him sleep during the trip home, but he’s not to be harmed.”

  “All right. And Alex?”

  “I don’t care how you do it, just remove him permanently. Something in his drink? An accidental overdose, perhaps? Tragic. Happens all the time at wild parties.”

  “I can arrange that.”

  “No,” he said coldly. “You’ll kill Quinn yourself or else answer to me when I arrive.”

  “You . . . you’re coming here?” God help him.

  “I’ll be at Henry’s before the party ends. Insurance.”

  The call was cut off with a click. Before he lost his nerve, he placed two more.

  Soon, it would be over.

  He’d be damned lucky if he wasn’t sharing a grave with Alex.

  “You’re home early! What—”

  Alex smothered Liv’s impending inquiry with a hungry kiss, gathering her into his arms. She melted into him, all female softness, just the right curves. “Are we alone?”

  “For now. Jason went home because I wanted to talk to you when you got home about—”

  “Later.”

  Bending, he swept her into his arms and bounded up the stairs, carrying her like a baby, laughing as she squealed.

  “Alex! What on earth?”

  “I want to make love to my sexy wife,” he growled, nibbling at the curve of her neck. “Is that so bad?”

  “Mmm, you’re at your best when you’re bad.”

  “You know it, lady.”

  He placed her on the bed and crawled up her body, flicking open the button on her shorts and sliding them down her toned legs, along with a pair of lacy purple panties. After helping her off with her T-shirt and bra, he scooted to her feet.

  “Lie back and let me spoil you.”

  “Works for me.” She laid her head on the pillows and studied him curiously as he began to massage her feet. “What, no confession tonight? God, that feels good,” she sighed.

  “Actually, I do have one.” She tensed some, but he kept rubbing, slow and easy. “I went to see Jenna after work. Not to be with her, but to break things off.”

  She blinked at him, surprised. “So, you didn’t . . . you know.”

  “No, and I won’t. Not with her.”

  Liv couldn’t hide her happiness if she tried. “What brought about this decision?”

  “Several good reasons, but mostly because she was starting to feel like a habit. Like she expected a regular thing, which was never what I wanted.”

  “Well, there are certainly other lovers to enjoy, if you’re inclined.”

  “You’re fishing. That’s sort of cute.”

  “I am not! The bargain stands. I’m a woman of my word, handsome husband.”

  He kneaded the muscles of her calves and higher, to her thighs, lips turning up at her groan. “I know, and I’m the luckiest fool on the planet.” Spreading her legs, he moved between them and began to stroke her sex with feather-light touches. “Will I indulge again? I don’t know, but it makes me hard as hell knowing I have your blessing and you have mine. That we can tell each other anything and find quadruple the satisfaction we ever had before.”

  “Ohh, Alex.” She let her thighs fall open, inviting him in. Needing him.

  “Let me love you, baby.”

  He trailed his tongue along the inside of one thigh to her center. Laved her pussy lips, played with the tiny clit. He alternated between teasing and suckling until she writhed, pulling at his hair.

  “I need you inside me!”

  Kneeling, he pulled her closer and hooked her knees over his shoulders. Cupping her bottom, he lifted her up, parted her slick entrance, and slid home.

  For a moment, he reveled in the mewling sounds she made, the sight of her impaled on his cock. He’d never get tired of this feeling, loving this woman.

  “I love you,” he said softly.

  And began to thrust with sure, steady strokes. Parting her flesh again and again, burying himself in her heat. Making love to the woman who’d held his heart in the palm of her small hand for nearly twenty years.

  Who’d hold it until the day he drew his last breath.

  Fire gathered in his balls, licked at his cock. She met his thrusts by arching her back, totally wanton. Letting go, giving everything to him. His balls tightened and he tensed, holding himself deep, and he went over the edge.

  “Ahh, yeah!”

  The blaze shot from his spine down his cock and he filled her, jerking and spasming until they were both sated.

  Withdrawing, he carefully lowered her and stretched out, gathering her into his arms. She settled on his chest with a happy sigh, one dainty leg thrown over his.

  “My, that was fabulous.” She gave his sweaty chest a peck.

  “You sure were, baby.”

  “Flatterer.”

  “Nope, flattery is insincere. I mean every word.”

  She grew so quiet, after a few moments he thought she’d fallen asleep. But she stirred and rolled to look at him, chin propped over his heart.

  “I’m sorry I left you alone so much that we grew apart,” she whispered.

  His throat tightened and he shook his head. “I’m just as much to blame. Sometimes it seems easier to let go rather than remember what you were fighting for.”

  “We almost lost each other.”

  “But we didn’t.”

  “I love yo
u.” She bit her lip. “You know that, right?”

  “I—of course I do. Why do you say it like that?” Ah, crap. “Are those postcoital tears of joy, or is something wrong?”

  He smoothed away a stray drop with his thumb, waiting. Lungs suddenly devoid of enough air.

  “Do you . . . could you find room in your heart for one more? I-I didn’t mean for this to happen.” She sniffed, regarding him with a mixture of apprehension and hope.

  “You’re talking about Jason.” He kept touching her face, her hair. Reassuring. “We can discuss anything now, remember?”

  She nodded. Took a deep breath.

  “I think I’m falling in love with him.”

  Fourteen

  If she’d announced she was the one who’d hired men to kill him, Alex couldn’t have appeared more shocked.

  The emotions in his green eyes ran the spectrum from hurt and fear to desire and curiosity. “We don’t know anything about him,” he said, voice rough. “He won’t share his past, doesn’t seem to have a clue where he’s going. How can we build on a lack of trust?”

  “I didn’t know you when we first met,” she pointed out. “But it didn’t matter to me because I saw the kind of man you are: funny, driven, successful, respected by your peers.”

  “You believe you can read Jason? And his secrets don’t concern you?”

  “Sure they do. I also believe he’s a good man with a big heart, and he’ll tell us his story when he’s ready.”

  “What if he doesn’t?”

  “I don’t pretend to have all the answers.”

  “Then try this one. . . . Am I losing you?”

  Her husband was truly afraid. Even after their lovemaking, how special it was to both of them, she’d shaken his confidence. She took his face in her hands, gave him a lingering kiss. “Never. I love you, Alex Quinn, and nothing will ever change the way I feel.”

  “What if I can’t make room for another man, Liv? What then?” He paused, eyes searching her soul for the truth. “Would you let him go?”

  “Would you ask that of me?” she returned quietly.

  Stalemate. She knew what her answer would be, but did he?

  His confusion was palpable as he lay holding her. The evening lengthened to shadows and finally to darkness, and sleep overtook her, chasing away the uncertainty.

  The irony was that she, not Alex, might be the one to destroy their marriage with her bargain.

  Alex eased from the bed and left his angel sleeping.

  His angel who’d fallen for another man.

  Feeling restless, he pulled on a pair of shorts and headed downstairs, thinking about how this underscored the difference between men and women since the dawn of the world. Men had forever been ruled by the drive to prove their virility, and to sample the forbidden where it could be found.

  Women were creatures of the heart, ruled by their instinct to feather the soft nest of hearth and home for their men and children. They loved hard and forever, didn’t take men to their beds lightly.

  Well, Liv had never been one to nest, and the desire to have children had bypassed them altogether, but the last held true for his wife.

  Despite their rich fantasy lives, she wasn’t one to take a lover into her body and leave her soul out of the equation. She wasn’t made that way, and he ought to know.

  More than one man had tried. Ultrasophisticated men, movers and shakers power lunching in her restaurant. Until tonight, he’d always looked upon the occasional brave man’s efforts with pride and no little amusement. His wife was a classic beauty. A man would have to be dead not to want her.

  When she’d taken Jason as her lover, he’d been thrown. He’d been so caught up in himself, he’d believed her liberation to be more of a reaction to his own conquests. Tit for tat.

  “The joke’s on you, Quinn.” He stepped outside onto the patio. Stared at the heavens.

  And now she’d fallen in love. With a younger man. A stunning younger man who’d been badly hurt by someone, and had demonstrated no evidence of a job nor the desire to get one.

  Fate was a tricky bitch.

  Could you find room in your heart for one more?

  Could he? To be honest, he found Jason charming, likable. The sex was fantastic, and they were definitely compatible.

  The real question was whether he could be trusted. In light of everything happening lately—

  A splash from Jason’s pool interrupted his whirling thoughts. Drawn like a moth to a bug zapper, he drifted to the fence and watched the man swim laps with smooth, even strokes. Water sluiced off his lean back and pale buttocks, the line of his body pure poetry in motion.

  A beautiful man who makes Liv happy.

  Who makes me happy.

  What if he chose to leave St. Louis?

  A jolt of possessiveness and arousal hit Alex low and hard, and something very much like distress at the thought of Jase walking out of their lives. A storm of emotions he’d never felt for anyone except Liv.

  He refused to put a label on it. Would. Not.

  He wasn’t ready. Might never be.

  Jason hoisted himself from the pool and walked over to a patio chair, grabbing his towel. He dried his hair and body while Alex appreciated the view, then suddenly straightened and looked toward the fence.

  “Alex?”

  Crap. “Yeah.”

  “Shit, you startled me.” Wrapping the towel around his hips, he tucked in the end and crossed to where Alex stood staring at him.

  “Damn, don’t you ever wear clothes?”

  “Hey, I’m in my own backyard. I can’t help it if my neighbors are voyeurs.”

  “We can’t help it if our neighbor is sex on a stick.” Hell, what made him say such an asinine thing?

  Jason grinned at him. “And you use your stick very well, I must admit.”

  Embarrassed, but pleased, he barked a laugh. “You’re shameless.”

  “Pretty much. So, can I help you with something?” His gaze raked Alex meaningfully.

  Oh, tempting. “Actually, I need to talk to you. Why don’t you come over here.”

  Jason shrugged. “Sure.”

  In short order, the other man came through the gate, wearing nothing but the damned towel. “Don’t have much modesty, do you?”

  “Not really. My favorite T-shirt says Go Naked, so that should give you a clue.”

  “Not the one I’m after. Sit,” he said, gesturing to one of the loungers. Jason got settled, elbows on his spread knees, the stupid towel hovering just above the essentials. “This is about Liv. And me.”

  “You’re lucky; she’s a special woman. I didn’t know—” His gaze shifted to the patterned concrete under their feet.

  Alex was patient, sensing the young man was about to reveal an essential part of himself. He wasn’t disappointed.

  “I never knew true joy in sex before you and Olivia.”

  Alex stared at him. “What did you know?”

  “Pain. Humiliation. Servitude.” He laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. “And let’s not forget deviance.”

  “You, deviant? Jase, you’re so young, you’ve barely lived.” He shook his head, recalling the reference Jason made to his old lifestyle, right before their first sexual encounter. “I’m in the courtroom with unsavory people every day, and I’ve seen no evidence you have a single trait in common with them.”

  “You don’t know me.”

  “I’d like to. So would Liv.”

  “Why?”

  The simple question, so vulnerable, tugged at his heart. “Jason, my wife believes she’s falling in love with you.”

  The other man was clearly stunned, his jaw dropping. And then his face filled with such wonder and hope, Alex knew he was one dangerous step from following Liv over the edge.

  “And you?” Jason asked.

  “I want Liv to be happy.” Jason seemed to deflate a bit, so he couldn’t help but add, “She’s not alone in her feelings.”

  God help him, it was the unva
rnished truth.

  Jason clasped his hands tight, as though anticipating the answer to his next question. “What do you want from me?”

  “The truth. Who—and what—are you?”

  Crickets chirped, but there was no other sound as Jason looked away. “Soon I’ll be able to tell you and Olivia everything, and that’s a promise. I’m not a bum who only made good off my late uncle’s inheritance, no matter how it might appear. Will you trust me?”

  Ah, there it was again: trust. What was it about Jason that inspired it without cause?

  “Until you give me a reason not to, yes.”

  “I can’t ask for more. Thank you.”

  “Come inside and stay,” he said, realizing it felt right.

  “I wouldn’t want to intrude . . . ”

  “For Olivia?”

  “And you.”

  “Yes. Me, too.”

  The admission came easily, with the knowledge that he wanted to wrap himself around Liv and Jason. Keep them safe.

  New and strange. But no less exciting.

  “Let me grab some shorts and lock up,” Jason said.

  This is my gift to you, Liv, he thought, watching the other man go. And if I’m honest, to myself.

  Jason was back in less than a minute, wearing cutoffs, probably commando underneath. In their bedroom, Jason stepped out of the shorts and Alex saw he was right. He swallowed hard, uncertain of how to proceed with these new and unfamiliar feelings. His cock had no trouble deciding, but damn.

  “There’s no shame in liking what you see, inside or out,” Jason said softly. “No labels, remember? It is what it is.”

  “You’re right. I’ll stop thinking so much.” He gave the younger man a small smile. “Let’s wake Sleeping Beauty.”

  “Good plan.”

  Liv rolled to her back, stretching in naked, splendid glory, blinking at them. “She’s awake now. What are you two hatching over there?”

  “A plan to wake you up nice and slow,” Jason said softly, giving her a smile. All of his feelings for her shone in his eyes. “But you caught us.”

  “Oh? Well, I’m sorry I ruined your surprise, then. Can I make it up to you?”