by C. J. Thomas
She laughed as my whiskers tickled the inside of her ankle. “No. I don’t have another man. It was from an inheritance.”
I lifted her leg high and kissed the backside of her calf. “You come from money?”
“Hardly.” She rolled her eyes. “No, I come from a past I prefer not to discuss.”
I continued to kiss her leg before moving on to the other. It didn’t matter where her money came from. I didn’t ask because I didn’t care. All I knew was that I didn’t want her to be with anybody but me. She was mine. I’d claimed her tonight, and the taste of what I received sparked enough curiosity to want it to continue into the foreseeable future.
When I dropped her foot back to the bed, she stared at me with a suspicious look on her face. My cock was heavy again and I liked what she did to me. She was amazingly strong, but there were demons hiding behind those big, dark green eyes of hers.
“Then tell me how you came to work for the Madam.” I lowered myself between her legs, trailing the tips of my fingers lightly over her stomach. She was so soft, and so small, I was surprised that I didn’t break her with the things I did to her in order to get me off.
“That, too, is a long story that I’m afraid I just don’t have the energy to tell right now.”
My tongue circled over her belly button. “Just give me a hint.”
“A friend recommended I do it.”
“I see,” I said, dipping my finger into her slick cleft. I worked her until I had her panting with her eyes closed. Then I pulled away, knowing she’d be begging me to continue.
“Kelly, please,” she begged.
I pushed myself up and moved away.
“Really? You’re going to walk away now?”
My feet hit the floor and I moved to the dresser, opening the top drawer.
“If that’s how it is, then what’s next?”
I turned and held up the piece of paper that held the script to the contract I needed her to agree to. “I’m going to get in the shower and by the time I come out, you’re going to have signed the contract.”
“Can’t I join you?” She looked toward the bathroom.
“Sign the contract.” I set it on top of the dresser, placing a pen near it. Then I turned back to her and said, “Then I’ll let you fuck me again.”
28
Kendra
“Hey,” I said in a hushed tone when Alex opened the door. “All right if I stay here tonight?”
“You know you don’t have to ask.” She barely looked at me before turning on a heel and rubbing her eyes. “I thought I gave you a key.”
I knew by the sound in her voice that I had woken her up. “I must have left it at my place.”
I followed Alex inside, tossing my purse onto the chair in the living room. It smelled like it had been freshly cleaned and there were even vacuum trails left on the area rug. “I didn’t think you cleaned.”
“I don’t.” She stepped into the kitchen. “Nash hired a cleaner.”
I nodded as I continued to glance around, thinking that my own place needed a good scrub. It had been forever since I’d had the time to clean it and I wasn’t about to hire anybody to do it for me. But with everything going on, and knowing that I didn’t have any plans to invite anybody over, it seemed like a waste of energy. Energy that was better saved for Kelly.
Alex wasn’t one to wake up easy, so I watched as she pulled two glasses from the cabinet and fill them with tap water. She was probably wondering why I was more interested in staying at her place than going back to my own, but she didn’t ask, so when she handed me the water, I did it for her. “You can ask me, you know.”
“Ask you what?” She blinked away the sleep.
It was late, and I knew it was kind of rude of me to wake her, but I didn’t want to be alone. “Why I want to sleep here tonight.”
“You know you’re always welcome.” She glanced toward a bouquet of flowers.
I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed them sooner. The colors were bright and, naturally, it brought a smile to both our faces. I side-stepped and flicked the note I saw sticking out of the middle of them. After reading it, I said, “Nash misses you.”
“You have no idea.” Alex unconsciously parted her lips.
“And chocolates, too?”
She nodded, her cheeks glowing.
“Nice.” I smiled. “What did you do to deserve all this?” I asked, picking up the box of chocolates, opening the top and stealing one for myself. “Wait. Don’t answer that. Let me guess.” I chewed the caramel chocolate, marveling at the way it brought my taste buds to life. “You wore that slut costume during a video chat, didn’t you?”
A guilty grin spread to her ears.
“You dirty whore.” I laughed, diving in for seconds.
“And he also sent me this.” She pulled a white sapphire pendant heart necklace out from beneath her shirt.
“Wow.” It was beautiful. I could only imagine how much it cost him. But I knew Nash thought she was worth it, so it didn’t really matter what the price tag was.
Alex was glowing and I was happy for her, but also a little envious. The only gifts I was currently receiving were items the Madam provided—items she expected to get back after the date was through. If I wanted anything like flowers and chocolates I would have to purchase them myself.
“You look nice.” Her eyes did a once-over of me. Then her nose twitched, sniffing the air. She leaned forward as if she’d caught a scent.
“Whoever smelt it dealt it,” I joked, leaning away from her.
“You smell like a man.” Her eyes brightened like she’d caught me in a secret I was hiding from her. Except I wasn’t hiding anything. If she wanted to know, all she had to do was ask. Chances of me being with a man tonight were pretty darn good. She just didn’t know which man I’d been with.
“Don’t you have something better to do with your life than be digging into mine?” I teased.
“Date tonight?” Her brow rose and formed a perfect arch.
I nodded, cleaning my teeth with my tongue, and rested my tailbone against the edge of the counter stool. Alex leaned against the counter with her arms folded as I told her about my date with Timothy, the meal we shared, and finished by saying, “The Madam specifically instructed me to fuck him.”
Her eyes popped out of her head. “Did you?”
“Not exactly.”
“How do you not exactly fuck someone?”
"That’s just it.” My lips tugged at the corners. “I did fuck someone. Just not him.”
“Then who?” She was starting to wake up.
“The lawyer,” I said, stealing a sip of my water.
“That Black guy?”
I tilted my head to the side, giving her a pinched expression. “You know how that sounds, right?”
“You know what I mean.” She waved me off, rubbing her forehead.
“Yes. Mr. Black,” I said, telling her how he showed up out of nowhere and stole me away from Timothy Parker.
“Kendra!”
“I know.” My voice was muffled as I talked into my water glass. “The Madam is going to have my head. But it’s not my fault.”
“Except it kind of is.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you saw what happened you wouldn’t be saying that.”
Alex glanced at the clock. “I’ve had a long day and need to get up early. Promise to catch me up tomorrow when it’s not so late?”
I nodded, finishing my water. “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?”
“Yeah, of course.” There was a flash of concern in her eyes but when I stood, Alex bent her elbow and I met her at the counter’s end, hooking my arm in the crook of hers.
“After what you said about your bed, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what it would be like.” I laughed.
“You’ll never find a better night’s sleep.” She turned her head and smiled. “I can promise you that.”
We practically skipped down the hall and it felt good
to be with my friend again. And it didn’t hurt that Kelly had blessed me with the release my body had been craving since the day Madam deprived me of sex altogether. I was so tight, it was any wonder I managed to keep my cool as well as I had.
We were both in high spirits and our futures were looking bright. Alex had her man and I was working on getting one of my own. I was feeling more like my usual self, and that was a good thing. Good for everybody.
Alex dove under the covers and, after stripping out of my clothes, I joined her. My arms draped over hers and our legs tangled down to our feet as I spooned her. “It must have been good sex,” she said. “He’s even on your breath.”
With Nash out of town, it was back to how things were before she found him and I kind of liked it. Tonight was a simple reminder that if our worlds did turn upside-down, there was nothing to worry about because at least we still had each other. Just the two of us, laughing and talking about the boys we were dating. It was the perfect end to an incredible night and it couldn’t have been more perfect.
“I didn’t know it was possible to have so many orgasms in one night,” I said, making us both laugh hysterically.
It was refreshing knowing I could tell her about my sex-capades without being judged or shamed. That was another thing I loved about her. The only difference now was that instead of being disappointed by the men I fucked, I was actually exhausted from my night with Kelly. That, too, was another reason to work myself into his life.
But then I started having regrets, thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have left him the way I did. Maybe I should have stayed, joining him in the shower against his will.
Alex rolled her head toward me and asked, “Then why are you here with me and not him?”
It was like she read my exact thoughts. Maybe she could feel what it was I was thinking, or perhaps she knew me better than I knew myself. “The thought of spending a night alone with him is both thrilling and terrifying.”
Alex turned her head, resting her ear back over her pillow. “You really like him, don’t you?”
My mind ran wild with possibilities. “I do.”
“Wait!” Alex flipped over so she was facing me, her body perched on a bent elbow. “Was he the one you were with the night I picked you up?”
My eyes closed. I couldn’t look at her. I knew what she was thinking, what she would assume. “It’s not like that,” I whispered.
“Then what’s it like? Because I’d like to know.”
I hid my face in my hands.
“See, you can’t even face the truth.”
I flung my hands to my sides and looked at her straight on. “Please trust the decisions I make.”
“I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be.”
“How can I not? When are you going to tell me more about what happened to you? You promised me you would tell me.”
“And I will.” I reached for her hand and she let me take it. My thumb stroked over her knuckles as I fought to find the strength to tell her about the time I was raped. “Just not now.”
Her eyes searched for answers. “Kendra, have you sought help for this?”
“Help?” I barked out a laugh but it wasn’t sincere.
“Professional help. If you can’t talk to me—your best friend who you tell everything to—then maybe you can open up to someone who’s not so close to you.”
I let out a heavy sigh. Maybe she was right. Maybe I did need help. Never had I opened up about what happened. Instead, I tried to push it out of my life and act like it never happened. That strategy had worked for a while. But the truth was, I was broken, in denial, and perhaps even confused about the person I really was and the person I wanted to be.
“Will you at least think about it?”
Tears swelled behind my eyes and threatened to spill. With a quivering chin, I nodded. “I came here tonight because he still wants me to sign that stupid contract.”
“You haven’t signed it?”
I shook my head.
“What is it? Like, a pre-nuptial for dating?” The left side of Alex’s face scrunched.
Inside my mind I was there, inside the room of the club where Kelly first presented me with the non-disclosure agreement. A part of me wanted to go down that road with him. But another part of me was frozen stiff scared, too afraid that once I did sign it, it would set off another emotional trigger leaving me paralyzed and distraught once again. “More like a non-disclosure.”
Her brows furrowed. “Geeze, I thought we were past all this.”
“As if.” In a perfect world, there was no reason I shouldn’t sign it. At least, I couldn’t come up with a reason to keep avoiding having to do it, except to keep my voice. It was the only thing I had when it came to him, and I wasn’t sure I could trust him enough to not lead me astray.
“Maybe I don’t understand,” Alex said, still confused as to what the big deal was. “If he wasn’t the cause of your breakdown, then why are you avoiding it?”
“I’m afraid.”
“Kendra,” she angled her head, “if he was the reason you were so shattered, then leave him now and don’t look back.”
“He wasn’t. I promise.” But it was a half-truth. He’d set it off, but he didn’t mean to. I perched my body weight on my elbow, a mirror image of Alex. “And get this.”
Alex leaned forward, blinking.
“He asked if I like pain.”
Alex’s eyes rounded into big white balls.
Then I spanked her and twisted her nipple.
“Fuck, Kendra. What was that for?!”
“That’s what he did to me.” A big smile filled my face.
Her head slowly bobbed on her shoulders. “He’s totally a member of Mint.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said, collapsing onto my back.
“So if that’s why he wants you to sign the contract, to take you to a club like that, will you do it?”
“I don’t know,” I murmured. “I guess I need to know more about who he is and what he wants to do to me.”
“And then?”
“Then I’ll know if I should dive in. Or forget about him forever.”
29
Kelly
My hand balled into a tight fist as I thought about the mistake Kendra was making in refusing to sign the agreement.
Despite my gritted teeth, I had to forget about her. At least for now. My mind needed to be cleared and focused for my meeting with Mario Jimenez. There was too much on the line to fuck this meeting up, and I had some questions for him that needed answers.
Maxwell pulled my SUV into the county jail parking lot, stopping in the front to let Giselle and me out. “Don’t go too far,” I said to him as my feet hit the ground.
“Understood, Mr. Black.”
I closed the door and met Giselle on the other side. “Ready to learn the truth?”
“If we walk away with fewer questions than we came here with, I’ll consider it a win.” She smiled as we made our way to the front entrance.
We had prepared for this meeting, and now that it was here I was excited to hear his voice, listen to his story, and learn what he had to say. I promised myself that I wouldn’t blame him for Maria’s death until I heard it all—seeking to find the truth myself. It wouldn’t be easy, because those images of her mangled and bruised body were the type that sparked nightmares.
“If I lose my cool …” I pulled the door open and Giselle passed in front of me.
“I won’t let that happen, Kelly.”
I nodded, loving how Giselle had the guts to ground me when my temper flared. It was one of the reasons that made us such a great team. She was smart, but she also had the strength to not let things get to her either. It was that calm collection that allowed us to find our own meaning of the truth in each case we worked.
The clerk at the front desk greeted us and we both signed our names in before unloading our pockets and sending our briefcases through the x-ray machine.
“Mor
ning.” I nodded to the officer as I stepped through the metal detector.
“Who are you here to see?” I heard a familiar voice say from behind.
I turned to find Oscar Buchanan passing and I said, “A potential client.”
“Always secrets with you.” He snickered.
“It’s not that hard to figure out if you know where to look.” I winked, retrieving my possessions off the x-ray’s conveyer belt.
He chuckled and reached out to shake my hand. I took him with a strong grip as he leaned his face close to my ear. “Any new details on the dead girl?”
“Nothing worth sharing with the DA’s office.” My grip tightened on his hand.
He pulled away when I released. “I heard Blake Stone’s lawyer has been dismissed by the judge. Can’t say I was surprised to hear that.”
Giselle glanced at her watch and gave me an anxious look.
“I’m going to be late.”
“Are you going to take his case?” He tipped his head back and raised his brows. “It would be an opportunity for you. Don’t you think?”
“Is that what you want?”
“You know I can’t resist a good courtroom brawl.” He laughed. “And besides, I need a reason to get back at you for stealing Kendra away. It would also give me reason to humiliate you in court.”
“I didn’t steal her.”
He arched his brow.
“She left you for a better man. Let that one sink in.” I hit his shoulder and paused to watch him swallow down the truth-bomb I just detonated on him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m already late for my meeting.”
“I’ll see you around, Kelly Black,” Oscar said as I hurried down the hall.
Giselle’s heels clacked down the hall at a gallop. “What was that about?”
“Male posturing.” I grinned as I opened the door to the private room where Mario was already waiting.
Mario lifted his head when we stepped in and I couldn’t help but notice how he eyed me with suspicion.
“I’m Kelly Black, the criminal defense attorney you called.” I rounded to the opposite side of the table before reaching across and offering my hand.
