Love Over Lattes

by Diana A. Hicks

  His eyes settled on my sex, and I melted some more. “Why do you make me work this hard for you?”

  I licked my lips and cleared my throat. I wanted to taste all of him. “I’m in your bedroom…naked. That’s hardly me making you work hard for me.”

  He shook his head. That wolfish grin of his was back. Yeah, he was going to make me pay, and I couldn’t wait. Wrapping his fingers around my wrists, he pulled me toward him. When I was within reach, he kissed me. His tongue gently pressed and teased until my lips parted for him.

  Like magnets, my hands went to his shoulders and moved up to the nape of his neck. I loved his soft skin and the strength of his straining muscles underneath. I tunneled my fingers in his hair and breathed in his musk, that smell that was only his. He palmed my breasts, captured both nipples between the pads of his fingers, and applied a small amount of pressure. Holy shit. My clit reacted immediately, aching with need. What was that?

  I let out a breath that sounded like something between a moan and sigh. He waited a moment longer. When he released me, the tightening around my hard bud lessened.

  “You feel so good, so soft.” He cupped my breasts again, and my pulse raced in anticipation. I bit my lip and waited. As soon as I relaxed my shoulders, he brought the peaks close together and moved down to kiss them. Again, he pinched my nipples and let the pressure build.

  “Show me where you feel it,” he whispered.

  Omigod, show what? My hand reached for the inside of my lace underwear.

  He blocked me with his elbow. “Show me,” he muttered.

  I arched my back. The aching desire at my core mounted. I wasn’t sure how much more of that sweet agony I could take. I spread my thighs, falling back on the bed, undeniably under his spell. That infuriating grin of his appeared again when he hooked his fingers in my panties and pulled them off.

  “Let me kiss it better.” His hands on my waist felt cool against my hot skin as he bent down and captured my button in his mouth.

  I nodded, unable to form the words. Or breathe, for that matter. He cupped my ass, kneading it and bringing me closer to him. His lips pressed against me expertly, soft and full. Within moments, I was merely a puddle of sensation. He palmed the apex of my sex. Each stroke in perfect synchronization with his electrifying tongue. I arched my back, ready to combust.

  “Let it go, sweetheart,” he whispered against my bud. His hot breath on my sex sent me into a whirlwind of ecstasy. Slow and hot, liquid fire sprung from my core and swirled down to my toes.

  “Cole.”

  “Yes, sweetheart.” He sat back on his heels, running a hand up my thigh, across my belly and breasts. “I’ve never felt skin like yours.”

  I couldn’t move.

  Taking ragged breaths, he reached for a wrapper on his nightstand. He took his time to smooth on the condom with precise strokes—to torture me some more, no doubt. I didn’t want to wait. I sat up, and my hands landed on his chest, kneading anything I could reach, his rock-hard abs, his back, his ass.

  His gaze met mine. Omigod. Cole wanted me as much as I wanted him. Slowly, he ran a hand up my leg, eased me back, and positioned himself on top of me. He entered me, hard, filling me completely, plunging into me. The need built up again. How was I going to get there again?

  “You are so beautiful,” he whispered. “And you feel so good.”

  Pulling out, he gripped my hips and guided me onto my belly. He kneaded my butt cheek and rubbed against me, letting me feel how hard he was for me. The bubble building up in my chest finally burst. I giggled, feeling giddy and complete. Nothing else mattered. We were meant to be together. Whatever problems we had outside this bedroom, we could work them out. I loved him, and something told me he loved me back. I’d seen the desperation in his eyes when he thought I was leaving, when he thought I didn’t believe him.

  I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “What happened to the lunch you promised?” I teased.

  He chuckled. “Waiting downstairs. We can stop if you want.” His voice sounded strained and ragged.

  “Don’t stop.”

  “Thank God.” He pressed his lips on my shoulder before he entered me from behind. I buried my face in the covers, letting out a sigh, waiting for the climax I knew would come.

  “Relax,” he whispered in my ear, reaching deeper with every thrust, making my desire pulse hard. He increased the speed, and I squeezed tighter and tighter around him until I felt that burn inside me ignite, an intense and hot release. “Sweetheart. You’re the only one I want. Say you believe me.”

  The peace and happiness his words brought me were better than any orgasm.

  Well, pretty close.

  “I believe you.” The duvet muffled my words. “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  A Different Truth

  Cole

  I was well aware I looked like an idiot, smiling as if I were two seconds away from bursting into song. But I couldn’t help it. Lunchtime was now my favorite time of the day. Well, spending it with Valentina was. I just couldn’t get enough of her. And for once, she seemed content with our arrangement. The urge to run away had left her eyes. This pleased me more than I would’ve guessed. Checking my watch, I made my way downstairs. It was almost noon.

  Halfway down the stairs, I halted. The clinking of glasses in the living room set my pulse into overdrive. Last time an uninvited guest came to the house, I almost lost Valentina. Although I had to admit, the make-up sex had been phenomenal. My pants got tight at the thought of her that day, the little sounds she made every time she came.

  No matter how good sex was that day, I couldn’t risk another one of Nikki’s silly games. The door guard had specific instructions not to let her in. I still couldn’t figure out how she’d snuck in. I glanced down at the time again. Whoever was in the living room needed to be gone fast. I leaned over the banister before I reached the last step and spotted Dom.

  “Well, I’ll be damned, man. You’re alive!”

  “I’ve been busy.” I patted his back harder than necessary. “Still drinking my booze, I see.”

  He shrugged, taking a long swig of whiskey. “You always keep the best shit. It’s been two weeks, man. Where the hell have you been?”

  “I’m expecting company, so state your business quickly.”

  He laughed. “I thought you had Fridays wide open.”

  “Fuck off. What do you want?” I had purposely not told Dom about Valentina. He wouldn’t understand what she meant to me. Plus, he would most likely advise me not to get serious. Too late for that. At this point, I couldn’t go for more than a day without seeing her. I needed her in the worst way possible. “I’m seeing someone,” I blurted out. He had to know. I still needed him to draw up the custody papers for Max and arrange the payment for Alex Maio.

  “Nikki?”

  I laughed. “No. Not her. You’ll get to meet her in a few minutes.”

  “Oh, man. Look at you. Are you really in…” He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. “I can’t even say it.”

  “I’m in love with her.”

  “Well. I never thought I’d see the day. Our boy’s in love.” He patted me on the back. “I guess it’s true what they say. It can’t rain every day.”

  “What do you mean?” My smile faded.

  He finished his whiskey in one swig. “You want the good news or the bad news first?”

  “Always the good news first.”

  Dom strolled back to the bar, poured two whiskeys, and placed one in my hand. Lips pressed into a line, he gestured for me to sit down. “This is going to take a while.”

  I sat and sipped, blood pulsing through me. The alcohol helped eased my nerves some. It didn’t take a genius to know this had to do with Bridget and the divorce. But, man, Dom had a way to dramatize things.

  “Just say it.” I set my glass on the coffee table.

  “Bear with me. This is a long-ass story. So I told you I was going to sniff around Bridget’s financials,
right? Well, I couldn’t find anything wrong. No credit card debt or big splurges of money, although the woman sure does spend a lot of money on Louis Vuitton.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Anyhow, that’s exactly what caught my attention.”

  “The LVs?”

  “No, the fact that after burning through a couple of hundred thousand dollars in Vegas last month, none of it showed up on her account. So where did she get the money, right?”

  I nodded, remembering for the first time the look in Bridget’s eyes when we were honeymooning. The high of winning was everything to her. She’d lost a lot of my money those two weeks we were in Monte Carlo. But it never occurred to me that any of it was more than something to past the time or blow off steam.

  “Turns out she has an account in the Bahamas. This account is under an LLC I didn’t know about, but I was still able to get statements for it.”

  “I’m not even gonna ask how.”

  He shook his head. “I have my methods. Anyway, this account receives payments every month, for the same amount.” His eyes were alive with excitement.

  I exhaled, watching him intently. Dom had put the puzzle together. Was Bridget having money problems? I sat a little closer to the edge of my seat.

  “Now before I tell you where the money comes from, can you guess when the payments started coming in?” he asked.

  A slow burn flared from the pit of my stomach up into my chest. Yes, I was over Bridget’s betrayal. But this was something new. “It can’t be when I hired her.”

  “No. Right after you got married. And I mean right after. Like that same night after, man.”

  This whole marriage thing had been Bridget’s idea. Back then, I’d been so distracted by CCI I couldn’t see beyond my office door. She’d been with me every step of the way as we worked to increase our revenue and get to the target goal for the year. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember how we’d gotten involved romantically. One night we had sex in my office, and the next thing I knew she was planning our wedding. She’d been in a big rush too.

  “Where’s the money coming from?” I asked.

  “Mostly CCI, but also your personal accounts.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “She’s been stealing from me? All this time, she’s been screwing our accountant and stealing from me? Explain to me how this is the good news.”

  “I’m getting there. Despite the hefty monthly payments, her offshore account is almost empty. Get this—all the money has been flowing into another account in that same bank. No clue who the account belongs to or what kind of activity it’s seen. Because the day I sent an inquiry to my contact, he promptly informed me that no such account existed.” He paced for a moment, eyebrows drawn together. Was he afraid? This was something I rarely saw in Dom. “Then I found my car near the Nogales border, completely dismantled.”

  “What happened? Why didn’t you call me?”

  His cheeks turned red, as if he was remembering something. “It wasn’t necessary. I handled it. And I had help. Sort of.”

  “Better the car than you, though, right? I’m sorry about your car.”

  “Yeah. They were trying to make a point. And don’t worry. You already replaced it.”

  I sat back on the couch and raked a hand through my hair. We were going around in circles. We were out of time. “So now what? Back to square one?”

  “Not exactly. We don’t need to know what’s in the account. It’s perfectly obvious that Bridget went and got herself mixed up with a loan shark, a big one.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Trust me. I know a crew when I see one. I mean, who else would be able to act so quickly when I started looking into their business?”

  “This is mob stuff, Dom.”

  He nodded. “No shit. My guess is her boyfriend introduced her. I did some digging on Frank. He’s gotten himself into messes like this before.” He shrugged and took another sip of his drink. “I guess their sudden love sprung from their mutual interest in gambling.”

  “They’ve been enabling each other’s addiction.” I finished his thought. So that was Bridget’s big secret. The reason she needed to keep CCI. A fucking addict. “How did we not know this prick was an addict? I’m sure we did a background check on him before he was hired on.”

  “I checked. You didn’t do one.”

  I closed my eyes, clenching my jaw. “Bridget fast-tracked him.”

  “Not that it would’ve made a difference,” he said. “We check for priors, not for whether or not they’re friends with the mob.”

  Were they together when he came to work for me? Was this her plan all along? To con me out of my own company?

  “So she figured if she keeps my company, no one would ever question why she’s funneling funds out of the corporation.” Heat flushed through me. I fisted my cold hands and tapped my forehead, wishing Frank were here so I could beat the truth out of him. “Was this her plan all along, you think?”

  “Who the hell knows? She already canceled all bonuses for the year.” Dom blew out air and refilled my glass, which reminded me this was the good news.

  “Fuck. Shit. Fuck,” I said.

  “I hear ya, man.” He knocked back his drink. “That’s one fucked-up broad. I’m guessing she’s going to suck the company dry, then sell it by the pound.”

  “Or worse, go public. But as screwed up as this is, I think we can use this to our advantage.” A wave of hope washed over me, and I jumped to my feet. “I’ll pay off her debt with the mob. And in return, she’ll have to forfeit everything else. My company, alimony, and any other ties she might think she has with my family or me. I want that woman out of my life for good.”

  “Cole.”

  “No, Dom, this will work. Because if she refuses, I’ll call for an audit and she’ll end up in jail.”

  “I don’t know. Based on the monthly payments bleeding out of her account, we’re talking about a couple mil.”

  “I’ll pay.” I placed both arms on my hips. I was done with all this divorce bullshit.

  “Cole, sit down.” He took a long calming breath. “You still haven’t heard the bad news.”

  “Just tell me.” I leaned on the armrest. How much worse could things really get?

  “Your divorce decree came in this morning. Apparently, Bridget’s lawyer submitted a signed divorce agreement, in which you give her ownership of CCI.”

  Spots of bright light exploded in front of me, and blood surged through me, hot and fast. Resting my elbows on my knees, I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. My stomach churned with disgust for Bridget and her goddamn betrayal.

  “Did she forge my signature?” I asked through gritted teeth, meeting his eyes.

  Dom shook his head once. “That was my initial thought. I stopped by the court before coming here. They confirmed the signature is yours.”

  I sprung to my feet and raced to the library. I took the steps up to the loft two at a time. Random sheets flew off the desk as I trashed my office, riffling through the papers on my desk, looking for the damn documents. The agreement I’d signed four weeks ago was gone. Someone had come into my home and stolen it. I tried not to think of the implication. Someone close to me had betrayed me.

  “How did she get the signed agreement? I had it here,” I said. My legs felt heavy as I descended the stairs.

  “She claims that an employee brought them to her. Outside of the courtroom, she approached me and let it slip that she had to pay a considerable amount for them.”

  I rubbed my chest and bit the inside of my lip. “Did she give you a name?”

  “Yeah, wait. I have it in my inbox. I had to write it down. Not an easy name to remember.” He fished through his back pocket for his phone. “You have to be careful with this, Cole. Since when does Bridget volunteer information that can incriminate her in a court of law? She’s a lot of things, but dumb bitch isn’t one of them. I don’t know how this would benefit her. But I’m sure it does. Somehow. This
entire situation just reeks.”

  My hands trembled as he scrolled through the email on his mobile. Only one other person knew about the divorce. Only one person had access to my life…and to Bridget.

  “Here it is. Yeah, there was no way I was going to remember this. Valentina de Cordoba. Do you know her?” He must’ve read something in my face when he looked up at me. “Honestly, man, I have no way of confirming any of this. We could look at the camera feeds, but that’ll take a long time to do. This came out of left field. I don’t have a plan yet, but I’ll come up with something. I promise. That bitch will not get away with this.”

  Valentina’s name still echoed painfully in my ears. I shut my eyes, and all I could see was red. “Check your email again.”

  “What am I checking for?”

  “Check your goddamn email again.” My voice thundered around the room.

  “It’s here. Look.” He showed me his phone. When he met my gaze, his mouth fell opened. “Oh man, Cole. I’m so sorry.”

  I was the biggest idiot. I deserved this for believing her sweet-girl act was real, for thinking her feelings for me were honest. That she didn’t care about my money. What else did she lie about? Did she lie about needing a place to live? About Alex Maio? Jesus Christ. Did she send him to ask for money? I’d been flying blind that day because I only knew what she’d told me about him. But he certainly knew how to push my buttons. He knew exactly what to say to send me over the edge, to get me to rush in and save her.

  She turned me into a pathetic imbecile.

  I hoped she’d miss our lunch date. I wanted her to disappear because I didn’t know what I’d do to her if she showed up now. Burying my face in my hands, I squeezed my eyes shut and let the tears flow. When I opened them, Valentina stood on the other side of the window, looking like an angel. The woman who I’d thought had walked into my life to save me hadn’t been here for me at all.

  Her hair flew in the wind, dimples adorning her smile, like some kind of dark angel. She didn’t do this. She moved slowly. Why didn’t I see it before? The way she hesitated with every step, calculating my reaction. She did it now. Her walk was a prowl, like a predator after its prey. Me. I rubbed my eyes. It was so hard to believe.