He shrugged. “It sounds like the club will provide whatever sort of thing you are in to. I’m sure I could come up with something I’d like to try.” He winked. “What about you? Want to come with me?”
I forced myself not to act embarrassed. “Do you think the stubs I found are really that important? Maybe they don’t mean anything.” The idea of going to a place like that… well, I wasn’t a prude, but I didn’t know what to expect, which made me nervous.
Cage patted my hand. “Birdy’s trial is in four weeks. If I can’t find something quick, Birdy will go to jail for a long time. I need to turn over every stone, no matter how remote it seems.”
I looked away, stood, walked over to his dresser, and picked up a small glass paperweight. It had a silver dollar in it. “Do you need me to go with you?” I faced him.
“I guess not. If you don’t want to, I’m sure I can come up with a single-guy’s fantasy.” He ran his hands over his short hair, an obvious nervous habit.
It surprised me he was single. I mean, he was hot, talented, and motivated: Three things ninety-nine percent of all women look for in a man.
Cage continued, “But it would probably be easier if we went in as a couple. People are more likely to open up to a woman. Plus, haven’t you heard the saying, two heads are better than one?”
I laughed nervously. “Yeah, but I don’t know.” I turned back to his dresser, perusing the stuff in his men’s valet. There was some lip balm, a couple of receipts, and some change. I just needed some time to debate what Cage was asking. Like, would we actually have to go through with whatever fantasy we asked for? Did Cage expect that? Or did he plan on just getting us in and then we’d ask questions? The whole idea of going to Revelry set me on edge.
Cage came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” He turned me around. His gorgeous eyes were intense. “You have my word, Dandelion. You won’t do anything you don’t want to do. I promise.”
His sincerity warmed my insides. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he meant every word. “I believe you.” I stepped into his arms, allowing him to hold me. It was good. Relaxing.
Cage caressed my back slowly, his hands swirling with just a touch of pressure.
I took a deep breath. His shirt was opened at the neck in a V and I turned my face into his skin, running the tip of my nose against his chest. He stopped caressing me and pulled back so that he could see my face.
“I want to kiss you, Dandelion. You up for that?” His blue eyes searched mine.
His deep voice seemed to reach down and stroke the spot between my legs. I swallowed. I needed Cage. Not sexually—although I was sure being with him would be great—but he was Birdy’s only hope. If Cage and I kissed and things got weird between us…
He leaned down.
My lips parted. “You’re not married, are you?”
His lips brushed mine softly. A jolt of lust shot directly between my legs. Good God!
“If I were married I wouldn’t be kissing you in the bedroom of my bachelor pad.” He ran his tongue along my bottom lip.
I heard myself groan. “What about engaged? Do you have a fiancée?” He’d just told me he understood about the pain of a failed relationship, but I needed to hear the words anyway.
Cage chuckled. “No, Dandelion. I’m completely free of attachments.” His lips landed on mine in a passionate caress. My body begged me to fling myself at him.
His tongue took my mouth, roaming, exploring.
I wanted to tear off his clothes and let him do whatever he wanted. Let him use that magical tongue of his on my pussy. It was crazy. And amazing.
The intellectual part of me wanted to debate the differences between kissing Cage and kissing Griffin. There were differences. Obviously. They were two different people. Griffin attacked with aggression, while Cage liked to build, stoke the fires of lust. My body kept telling my mind to shut the hell up and just enjoy the moment.
So I did.
His hands went to my waist and pulled me tightly against him as his lips made their way to my jaw and then to that sensitive place behind the ear. He bit and kissed softly, continuing a path to my collarbones. I clung to him, my body singing with sexual need.
“Cage.”
His eyes caught and held mine. There was hunger in them, but hesitation too. He wouldn’t go any further unless I encouraged it. And holy fuck I wanted him to keep going. But part of me hesitated. Cage seemed like a nice guy. He was smart, clean cut, witty, had a thing for those fucking minty Life Savers, and was so damn sexy.
He leaned in a kissed me on the forehead. “Come on.”
My lusty haze had me confused. “Where are we going?”
“I’m going to take you home. You need your sleep.” He took my hand and led me out of the bedroom.
“But….” Maybe I’d done something wrong. Or worse, our kiss hadn’t affected him the same way.
Cage called for his limo, then came over and took my hand. “What’s wrong now, Dandelion?”
I shook my head, working to force away the sudden overwhelming need to break down and cry into a bowl of cookies-and-cream ice cream. I needed to tell him what I wanted, share my thoughts, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Nothing. I’m just tired and ready to go.” I started from the couch.
“Hey, I haven’t known you that long, but I’m really good at reading people, and I can tell there’s something wrong.” Cage pulled me onto his lap. The first thing I noticed was the bulge in his pants.
He had enjoyed our kissing. I was relieved and confused. Why had he stopped, then?
I turned around, hiking my denim dress up and then straddling Cage’s thighs. The front of his pants moved as I slid into him.
“What are you doing, Dandelion?”
It occurred to me that Cage was a man of extreme control. “I thought you hadn’t enjoyed our kissing. But this—” I slid further into his erection. His cock pressed against the front of my pussy. In a moment of worry I wondered if I was being too forward or slutty. I quickly pushed that away. I’d been with two men in all my twenty-six years. I leaned in, giving myself permission to enjoy the gorgeous man whose lap I sat on.
“Dandelion, I enjoyed our kissing very much. But you’ve had a rough day. Fuck, you’ve had a rough few weeks. I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of that.”
I bit my lip, moving his hands to my hips. If ever there was a time to speak my mind with a man, it was now. “I want you.” I leaned down to kiss him.
“You’re serious?”
I nodded. “Very. And I’m soaking wet.”
“Then we aren’t starting in here.” Cage lifted me and carried me back into his bedroom.
He climbed onto the bed while I held on, then dragged us up to the pillows. One hand trailed from my ankle, up my calf, and to the inner part of my thigh. I let my legs fall open for him.
Cage climbed off the bed.
“Where you going?”
He turned on the light over the bed and then dimmed it. So nineteen eighty-eight. I didn’t say that.
“I don’t want to miss a thing.” He climbed back on the bed, taking his place between my legs.
“Are we going to do this with our clothes on?” I asked before he kissed me. His lips collided with mine and I forgot about the clothes and even forgot about Birdy and Reid and Griffin.
Cage’s mouth held mine captive. There was only our mingling breath, the way our tongues entwined. His soft urgent lips claimed mine. The kiss was so fucking hot.
“I want to make love to you, Dandelion.”
I wanted that too, and was about to tell him so when the buzzer on the door sounded.
“Fuck,” Cage whispered.
“Yes, please.” But the mood was broken. There was lots to do.
“Thank you,” he said, pulling me off the bed and helping me adjust my clothes. I couldn’t help but stare at the huge tent in his pants. The man was obviously endowed.
“Listening to me go on about my past.”
Cage took my hand and we walked to the door. He picked up my bag on the way and held it out.
“I actually enjoyed that. I would love to hear more.”
“Well, if we’re going to do Revelry, it would be good to talk some more. Trust is the biggest part of making any fantasy a reality.”
“Oh?”
“Or so I’ve heard.”
“I think there’s a story there as well.”
“Dandelion, I have so many stories you’ll be a beautiful old woman before I get through them all.”
I liked the sound of that: Him still telling me stories, even when we were old. “Can’t wait to hear them.”.
He nodded. “Let’s go over Birdy’s journals in the morning. I’ll bring coffee and we’ll figure out a plan together, deal?”
“Deal.”
***
We rode through the streets of New York without speaking. The city lights blended together in reds, blues, and yellows. Horns honked around us. It was nearly three in the morning, but the city was still alive, congested even. We stopped at a light. I watched a homeless man hold out his old coffee cup; strangers dropped coins into it before crossing the street. New Yorkers are called cold and unfeeling, but we get a bad rap.
“One thing. If we take this any further, I need to know you aren’t going to freak out by any secrets you might discover.”
“What do you mean? What secrets?” I asked as the light changed and the limo began to move again.
“Things about your ex fiancé. Secrets about Birdy. Are you prepared for that?”
I doubted Reid had ever set foot in Revelry. “From the information I gathered on my ex, Reid preferred places more low class and shady.”
Reid caught my gaze and held it. “Still, promise me.”
“Do we know the club is safe? That if we go into the place we won’t disappear or catch something?”
“It’s a very well-known and highly sought after club, if you’re into that sort of thing. If its business practices were too shady it wouldn’t still be open.” Cage smiled. “I’ve texted the guy from the firm. He said he’d vouch for us, but that it would cost twenty-five hundred dollars just to get a meeting.”
“Holy shit! What if we change our minds?”
Cage shrugged. “If you’re serious enough to find out about the club and want someone to vouch for you, they believe you’ll follow through. Most fantasies start at ten thousand and can go up to a hundred thousand.” He glanced out the window. “At least that’s what he said.”
I leaned back in my seat. “I don’t have that kind of money.”
“I’ll bill some of it to the firm and I can cover the rest,” Cage said. “But I need you to say the words.”
“What words?”
“Say, Cage, I promise I won’t freak out.”
“I’m not sure I can promise you that, Cage.”
“I understand, I do, but if we go undercover freaking out could get us in hot water. So at least promise you won’t freak out until we’re safely out of that place. Is that doable?”
“Yes.”
“Say it, then.”
“Cage, I promise I won’t freak out until it’s safe. Does that work?”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” He smiled.
“Shit,” I swore again.
Cage chuckled. “Seriously.”
CHAPTER 3
Katie
The limo stopped in front of my brownstone. The driver came around and opened the door.
“I’ll walk you up.” Cage climbed out after me.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“If you knew my mother you wouldn’t be saying that.” He grimaced and I laughed.
“Okay. Thanks.” I headed to the entrance and was about to open the door when someone pushed it open, knocking it into my forehead.
“Ouch.” Tears sprang to my eyes.
“Hey. Watch where you’re going.” Cage grabbed the person on the shoulder, but the person shrugged him off.
“It’s fine.” I sighed, pulling the door wider. “Let’s get inside.” The air was cold and I wasn’t wearing a coat.
Cage cast his eyes back and forth between the person in the dark hooded coat and me. It was hard to tell if it was a man for sure, but the person’s gait and the way the black workout bag was draped across the body suggested male.
“Come on.”
Cage complied. We walked the three floors up, then down the hall to my apartment. I took the key from my purse and went to put it in the lock, but the door came open. It hadn’t been shut all the way.
Cage gave me a worried look. “Did you lock it before you left?”
I thought about it. “I think so.” I’d had two bottles of wine before I left for The Attic. It was possible I didn’t.
“Stay behind me.” Cage pulled the edges of his red shirt from his pants and lifted a gun from the waistband.
“Whoa. You been carrying that the whole time? Like when we were kissing?” The idea he packed a gun terrified me. What if it accidentally went off? What if he got mad and didn’t know what he was doing?
Cage didn’t answer, but stepped inside my apartment. He moved with keen precision, his gun steady as he stepped between the living room and the kitchen, making his way to the hall. It certainly appeared that he knew what he was doing.
“Cage,” I whispered, following him inside.
He put a finger to his mouth. “Stay there. Don’t move.”
I nodded. My apartment was dark, but not completely. The light from the water dispenser on the fridge and slivers of moonlight made it possible to see enough to make out where everything was. The bit of light also made it easy to see Cage’s lithe form move between my kitchen and living room and disappear down the hall. Fear rose from my stomach and into my throat. I wanted to call out, ask where he was, but I resisted.
After several long minutes Cage reappeared, turning on the light switch in the hall. “No one here but us, Dandelion. Hit the lights, would you?”
The kitchen light was to the left of the door. I switched it on. The kitchen looked like someone had torn through it. Cupboards were opened, as were the drawers.
“Did you do this?” Cage asked, shutting cupboards and doors as he moved around the small kitchen.
“No.” My fear grew. Someone had been in my apartment.
Cage tucked his gun into the waist of his pants. “The bedrooms and bathroom look like they’d been torn though as well. Feeling up to checking them out?”
“Sure.” I followed him into Birdy’s room. It’d already been a mess. Now it was worse. Her dresser drawers were open and the top mattress had been pushed onto its side and was leaning haphazardly over the box springs.
The first thing I thought of was the journals. I ran over. “They’re gone.” I covered my mouth, upset I hadn’t read them when I had the chance. Obviously there was something important within the pages.
“What are?” Cage asked.
I told him about the journals. He sighed. “Yeah, that sucks.” He squeezed my arm. “Want to check the other rooms?”
I followed him into my room. My mattress had been yanked off the box springs and leaned against the wall. I went to my dresser and then, when I didn’t see anything missing, I checked my closet. “Nothing seems to be missing.” I checked the bathroom. Drawers were opened and the shower curtain had been ripped down, but everything still seemed to be there. “The only thing missing is the journals.”
Cage nodded. Together we fixed my bed as well as Birdy’s. “We’ll get you a new shower curtain tomorrow.”
I crossed my arms as we made our way back to the living room. “You don’t need to do that.” I sat on the couch, hugging one of Birdy’s crazy pillows to my chest.
“Let me get you a drink.”
I heard the fridge open. There was more than a dozen bottles of wat
er inside and some wine. That was pretty much all we kept in there, other than maybe yogurt, cheese, fruit, and the occasional leftover pasta. It wasn’t hard to spot the water; they were on the top shelf. But I didn’t hear the fridge close. Cage appeared frozen. He stared into the fridge.
A string of fear worked its way through my chest and pulled. “What’s wrong? Don’t you see the water?” I walked over slowly, keeping the pillow cupped to my chest tightly.
“Stay back, Dandelion. You don’t want to see this.”
“Like hell.” No one told me what to do. I glanced inside the fridge. There was something red, like a thick hunk of meat, sitting on top of the water bottles. Red juices of some kind had dripped from the thing and puddled under the water. There was a piece of paper jabbed into the meat, held there by a fork. “What is that?”
“You didn’t do this, right?” Cage kept his voice low, even.
“No way.” I went to reach inside and move it, but Cage pushed my hands away. “Don’t touch it. Fingerprints.” His bright eyes bored into mine. “Do you have any tongs?”
“Yeah.” I went to the drawer where we kept our kitchen utensils and pulled out a metal set. “Here.”
“Get a serving platter. Something clean.”
I opened the cupboard and pulled out the platter we used for wine and cheese tasting parties. “Got it.”
He used the tongs, lifted the thing, and placed it on the platter. The paper had been soaked in blood, but it was still easy to read the words.
Slutty Bitch!
You ripped out Reid’s heart long before I did.
But the deviant fucker deserved it. You all deserve it.
Dandelion Katelyn Jayne, you’re next.
There were several names listed on the paper, including mine, Griffin’s, Birdy’s, Brian’s—the drummer in Griffin’s band—as well as Reid’s mom’s and dad’s.
“Do you think that’s Reid’s heart?” My stomach started to roll.
“There’s one way to find out.” Cage took out his phone and dialed 911. When he hung up, he said, “Hey, you doing all right?”
Boxed Set: Traitorous Heart Volumes 1-6 (The Traitorous Heart Series) Page 16
