by Unknown
“The man that hurt you?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Good. He deserved it.” Blake wanted to touch her so bad, he ached with the need. To slip some hair behind her ear or trace her jaw with his thumb, or kiss the bruise on her cheek. “Abbey, you won’t hurt me and no matter what you think, you don’t have to do anything right this minute except maybe close your eyes and get some rest.”
One finger touched the swollen head of his penis and he jerked. “It’s okay,” he assured her when she yanked her hand away. “That was a good thing.” He clenched his jaw and held his breath as she slowly followed the thick line of his ridged flesh all the way to the base before moving up again, this time with two fingers and more pressure.
Blake closed his eyes and tried to control his rough breathing. That Abbey was touching him like this almost made every one of his dreams come true. He’d been practically convinced it would never happen.
After a few passes up and down where she got more used to the feel of him, she wrapped her hand around his length, careful to be gentle. Eventually he’d show her she could handle him with a much firmer hand, but right now was all about Abbey and her comfort level.
“You’re not normal, are you?” she asked. It was such an honest question that Blake found himself laughing again.
“I thought I was pretty normal. Why do you ask?”
She squeezed him then. Hard enough for him to suck in a rush of air. “This can’t be normal. You’re giant. I mean, I have seen a picture or two so…” She studied his face seriously. “Not normal, right?”
Exhaling slowly, Blake focused on her words and not the urge to thrust in her hand. His fog-filled head only had one thought in it. Abbey stroking him to completion. “I’m normal for my family,” he managed to say. “I’m a twin, remember?” Sweat broke out on his skin. Everywhere.
“Brendan has the same equipment?” she asked.
He laughed again. “Don’t tell him I told you. He’d probably not like having that advertised.”
“So the guys in the locker room must be really self-conscious around you.” She kept up the dialogue as she began stroking him in earnest, and the will to hold onto any bit of self-control eroded away with each pass. Her brows quirked together. “So when do you come? What do I have to do to make you come?”
That. “Aw, shit.” Apparently, all she had to do was say the word because her touch was too new, too intense after everything he’d done to her tonight, and the immediate coiling of heat and desire shot him to the finish. His come jetted out in thick spurts across his stomach as Abbey held him.
“Are you…” Her eyes widened as she watched him…as she felt his dick throb in her palm. When he finished, a bone deep shudder shook him from head to toe. Abbey gently released her grip. “I’ll get a towel,” she said, and slid out from under the covers.
A few minutes later, after they’d cleaned up, they lay facing each other, several inches separating them. Abbey didn’t look freaked out at all. In fact, she watched him with something different in her eyes. He didn’t know if it was confidence or knowledge or what, but he liked the look.
“How about we go to bed?” He’d set his watch alarm for eight in the morning. They still wouldn’t get close to six hours of sleep, but at least it was something.
Her eyes were already closing and she nodded and sighed. “Thanks,” she whispered. She took his hand, held it snugly between them and fell asleep. Blake had never been more at peace.
Chapter Seventeen
Kim closed the large black binder in front of her, rested her elbows on the giant espresso-colored desk and rubbed her temples. How was she going to break the news to Leo? He clearly had no clue. Not even an inkling of the trouble he was in. And this was just another reason why she was glad she’d quit looking for a sugar daddy. Seriously, what happened when you married someone for money, then something happened and they lost all that money? Then what were you left with?
A truckload of unhappiness, that’s what. And possibly an asshole like Carl.
Rolling the chair back over the spotless bamboo floor in Leo’s opulent office, Kim stood. Every room in this mansion screamed money. He ate it, drove it, lived it and breathed it. At least he used to.
This room alone said a lot about the man. Although she hadn’t figured out if all the memorabilia stemmed from conceit or pride. Framed movie posters signed by cast members covered the walls, along with pictures of his time in Africa calling attention to starving children. His Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and two People’s Choice awards sat on a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf across the room. Deep tan paint gave the room a masculine feel, along with the dark leather sofa and chairs in front of the fireplace to her right.
She sighed. Needed to tell him. She needed to walk across the house, find him, sit down and break the news to him.
It wasn’t as if she could call someone else to do it. It was his business who he chose to tell, not hers. He never talked about anyone else. No family members and he hadn’t mentioned any good buddies. It seemed as though he had a lot of friends, but not a lot of friends, at least not the kind that stuck with you through thick and thin.
As easy as it was to sit here and admire Leo’s career, Kim forced herself to move, then paced back to the desk for the binder. She’d need proof because he wouldn’t believe her. She almost didn’t believe it herself. How could a person be so oblivious about their own life? She watched every dime like a hawk. Of course she had to. She was alone and in charge of her own destiny so if she didn’t look out for herself, no one else was going to do it. Poor Leo had let someone else be in charge and now he’d suffer the consequences.
Leo was about to learn one nasty lesson a very hard way.
Kim stopped at the signed movie poster of Dangerous Race. Unlike the others, the extravagant frame of this one matched the colors in the poster. The whole cast had signed it along with Trace Bradshaw and her husband Mac Reynolds, the couple on whose life the movie was based. Kim shook her head as she moved away. The circularity of the universe always amazed her.
“What’s got you so serious?” Leo asked as she entered the massive den. Muted green walls set off the pristine hardwood floors and big comfortable leather sofas and chairs faced the giant TV.
Watching a baseball game on his seventy-inch flat screen, relaxed in his faded jeans, bare feet and plain black T-shirt that molded to his sculpted muscles, Leo was about to fall from the top of the world. His tan came from hard workouts in the sun with every sport imaginable. In the few days she’d been at his house, she’d seen him bicycle, surf, run, lift weights and swim. He loved cracking a sweat every day.
She stopped next to the coffee table. “I like your Dangerous Race poster,” she said, buying a few more seconds before she sprang the news. “Did I tell you that Trace Bradshaw was one of my clients in Indiana?”
“No.” His genuine grin socked her like a punch to the gut. She was about to wipe it off his face. “You told me you knew her sister, right?”
“Yeah. Her sister is my partner. We have an ad agency and we help Trace promote her race school.”
“Sounds lucrative. Doesn’t she make millions in endorsements?”
Kim nodded, her forced smile fading at the thought of the millions that Leo assumed he had in the bank and actually didn’t.
“It’s about time you took a break. Feels like you’ve been locked in there for days. I was coming to see what you wanted to do for dinner tonight. Want a drink?” He got up and headed for the bar in the corner. A thick multicolored area rug covered a large chunk of the hardwood floor.
Up until now, they’d either gone out or defrosted one of the frozen meals Leo had delivered by a personal chef at the beginning of each week. Not a bad deal if you could afford it. Which he no longer could.
He’d asked if she wanted a drink. God, yes. “Sure. You might want to get something for yourself.” They’d struck up the oddest friendship. She kept waiting to dislike the guy and it never happened.
He gave her his full attention when they talked and he laughed at her bad jokes. He opened doors for her like a gentleman and not once had he put the moves on her.
“What’s it gonna be?” he asked, perusing his selection. “I’ve got beer, wine…” He lifted a dark eyebrow along with a bottle of Jack Daniels. “Your favorite, the good stuff.”
This news definitely required fortification. “I’ll take the good stuff.”
“You got it.” He poured her a Jack and water on the rocks.
“You remembered.” She hadn’t thought he’d been paying much attention the other night, but she’d learned that he always paid attention. It dawned on her that all the garbage she’d read about him might have been just that. Garbage. In a nutshell, he was a hard man to dislike. If this was how he acted with every female, it made sense why he had so many women in his life. Who wouldn’t want to be around a gorgeous guy who treated you well?
“Trust me. A man doesn’t forget a woman who drinks Jack and water.” He poured their drinks as she came forward, slapped the binder on the bar and sat on a leather stool. “Why so glum?” He handed her the drink. “Here’s to a decent tax return,” he said, knocking their glasses together then taking a sip.
If she could only drink to that. “Leo, come over here and sit down.” There was no easy way to do this and she’d never hesitated telling someone bad news before. Like years ago when she told her business partner they were out of money and couldn’t afford to stay in their building anymore. They’d gone from rags to riches and back to rags in under two years. What a ride.
Leo took the stool next to her, the playfulness gone from his blue eyes. “Nathan screwed me, didn’t he? I’ll bet I owe a truckload of taxes this year.” He eyed the binder. “No wonder he wouldn’t return my calls. I should’ve guessed. He mentioned putting in for an extension. How bad is it?”
Kim took the first long swallow from her drink, using the bite to push through. “I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s bad, Leo, but not the way you think.”
He took another sip of his drink, his gaze never leaving hers. “Go on. I’m listening.”
God, how did she start? “Nathan paid all your bills.” She worked hard to say it as a statement and not a question. And though she knew it was fact, it still seemed so ridiculously obscene that she just had to make sure she got it right.
“Yeah. He’s been paying my bills for years. It frees me. I’m out of the state half the time on location and I need him to do that stuff. Do I need to fire him? Once I find him?” he added with a surly growl.
“More like you need to have him arrested,” Kim mumbled. “Look,” she said, before Leo could comment. “He stole from you, Leo. A lot.”
Leo laughed. “No he didn’t. Hey, I know he invested my money. He told me he takes out chunks at a time to invest, but he always puts it back with more. It’s what he does. I’m not worried about it.”
“You should be.” Kim took another long drink and told Leo to do the same. He did. “Here’s the deal,” she said. “Nathan liquidated every dime he could get his hands on. You’ve got foreclosure notices on four different properties and back taxes due from three years ago.”
Leo’s face drained of color and Kim’s stomach swirled with Jack Daniels. “But I’ve got money in the bank to cover all that,” he said. The panic in his eyes had her chest heavy with empathy. She’d been there. Lived it. It wasn’t fun. Watching everything you worked for disappear was one thing, but being sandbagged by something so shocking was bound to make anyone sick with fear and helplessness. At least she’d had a warning. She’d known when to call it quits when they had just enough money to scrape by on. But Leo had some fancy footwork ahead of him if he planned to stay above water.
Kim shook her head. “I’m sorry, Leo. You don’t have anything. It looks like Nathan wiped you out then disappeared off the planet. You need to contact your lawyer because you’re in some serious trouble. Real serious trouble.”
The seven and seven Leo had ingested threatened to come back at him so he moved away from Kim. “This has to be a mistake,” he said, even though his gut told him otherwise. Despite the queasiness, he grabbed more whiskey behind the bar and reloaded his drink. He kept the bottle out.
“I know it’s hard to hear and I’m so sorry I’m the one to break it to you.” She followed him, her new heels clicking on his hardwood floors. She seemed genuinely upset for him. “The notices from the IRS are filed in the binder. Doesn’t even look like Nathan tried to hide them.”
Because the bastard knew Leo trusted him. Knew he wouldn’t ever glance at it. Dammit. What the hell had he been thinking to trust his whole life to one man? “Look, there has to be something left,” he said, scrambling to find a tiny silver lining. Especially since he’d have to pay his high price attorney over four hundred dollars an hour to deal with this mess. Tom Cox had joked that since Leo had been staying out of trouble the last year, his vacations had been cut in half. Yeah. Haha.
The pity in Kim’s eyes held very little hope. “I’m assuming your other houses are filled with furniture and art. You could bring in Sotheby’s or Christie’s for an estate sale and auction off everything. That will help. I noticed you have a lot of collector’s items and movie memorabilia. All that should probably sell well. If we can get to the banks before they actually start foreclosure proceedings, you can possibly sell the properties yourself to help pay off your tax debt.”
Leo grabbed his glass and the bottle and paced in front of the comfortable sofa. A sofa he’d probably have to sell if everything Kim said was true. He stopped, took a long swallow of his drink and the whiskey burned as it went down. He’d worked like a dog for almost twenty years to build his fortune and he’d practically given it away to a man he’d considered a friend. His chest tightened to unbearable proportions and he sat down.
“I’m so pissed and mad for you that I can’t even imagine how you feel,” Kim said, moving closer, the anger in her voice giving truth to her words. She sat on the chair nearest him and her cinnamon scent filled his head. “Especially since this guy was supposed to be your friend.” Her eyebrows shot together in an angry line. “How long have you known him?”
“A long fucking time,” Leo murmured. “Since junior high. We were the odd couple at school. I played sports and he was the short, smart nerd. I needed a tutor for some of my classes and Nathan offered his help. You can’t spend all those hours with someone and not build a friendship. Then I needed help with a few advanced placement classes so we stayed connected through high school then college and into adulthood. Nathan went on to be a CPA and finance manager, and handling my money seemed like the natural progression of things. Nathan’s investments made me millions.”
Until now.
His dismay started a slow burn in his gut, which the liquor fueled very nicely. “What the hell happened?” he asked, needing another hit of whiskey.
“As far as I can tell, he was pulling a Bernie Madoff. He told you he was investing your money, but he wasn’t. Maybe he was doing this with all of his clients and one of them found out. Maybe that’s why he’s missing. He either took what he could and ran…or someone found him and…” She yanked her thumb across her throat.
Leo took another drink. He hadn’t eaten and the alcohol was already going straight to his head. So was the panic. His palms broke out in a cold sweat. If he didn’t have money, how the hell was he supposed to take care of Megan? He couldn’t afford the institution without money. A lot of money. He swallowed more alcohol.
“Maybe we should get something to eat before you have any more of that,” Kim said. But she took another hit of her own drink.
Leo leaned forward, set the bottle and his glass on the coffee table and rested his head in his hands. “I am so fucked.” Emotion welled up in his chest like a geyser ready to spew and he didn’t want Kim around. Didn’t want anyone around to see him crack. He shot off the sofa, grabbed the bottle and headed outside into the breezy summer night. He looked ou
t at the sparkling pool with its underwater lights illuminating the blue and green tile on the edges and the fountain that ran into the Jacuzzi. He’d helped design all of it. It was his heaven from the crap the outside world dished on him on a regular basis. It was the place he’d banished himself to after he’d hit his own personal low last year.
Welcome to new lows, asshole.
Ditching a co-star who’d been an on-set fling had been his usual M.O. after a film, but he’d never driven anyone to kill until last year when Carrie Ann had gone off the deep end. That his radar hadn’t caught her serious personality disorder had shaken him up. Now he was left with an unfinished film because he couldn’t see releasing it and causing the woman, who had been institutionalized even more stress. She’d be bound to hear about it and if her reviews were as tough as they’d been in the past, it might affect her in a negative way. He didn’t want to be responsible for that. He knew casting her was a risk, but her audition had been so perfect, he’d had to go with his heart. He’d blown millions of his own money on that film and unless he did something with it…
Kim placed her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry.”
He appreciated her sentiment, but she had no clue what any of this meant. He pulled away from her grip and took a long painful pull of whiskey straight from the bottle. That shit burned going down. He needed space. Needed to think. Needed to figure out how the hell he was going to pull his life together.
Leo set the bottle on a nearby table, took two steps, a deep breath and dove into the pool, jeans and all. The cold hit him like a punch and shocked his system. He swam to the bottom of the deep end and let the silence of the water surround him. Just the loud beat of his heart thundered in his head. It kept saying, you’re fucked, you’re fucked. Many long seconds later, his lungs began to burn and he heard the rush of a splash behind him, but didn’t care. In the next instant, a feminine arm reached around his shoulders and started pulling him back and up.
