by A. C. Arthur
Every night since she and the girls had come back from the island vacation, she went for a swim before heading up to bed. Tonight, she figured she needed that stress reliever more than ever. She just needed to change into her bathing suit—the new one that she’d bought after trashing the one she’d worn in Turks and Caicos. But the moment she entered her room she frowned at the fact that she was not alone.
“We waited up for you,” Malaya said sitting up in the center of Hailey’s bed, her shoulder length hair pulled into a high tail that swung along her neck.
“I have something to talk to you about,” Rhia added from her spot in the recliner across the room from the bed. The older Mendoza sister left her raven black hair long and hanging almost to her bottom. There were flirty little curls at the ends today and what looked like a fresh coat of make-up highlighting all her great features—smoky dark eyes and those full, pouty lips. Rhia Mendoza was definitely a looker at sixteen. Hailey knew that by the time the girl was an adult, the guys would be knocking down the door to get to her.
“She just wants to talk about boys,” Malaya added. “That’s all she ever wants to talk about.”
Hailey had closed the door, reminding herself that these girls, coupled with their father and his business dealings, were the reasons she was able to stay at this gorgeous estate for the next two months. They were also the reason why in just one more year she’d be able to graduate with a degree in Linguistics, pay off more of the medical bills left by her grandfather and possibly get that job teaching abroad.
“Boys are a very interesting topic,” Hailey told them when she’d crossed the room, dropping her purse onto the stand beside her bed and toeing off the four inch sandals she’d worn to the dinner.
She thought of one member of the male gender at that moment that was beyond interesting. He was perplexing and alluring and…
“His name’s Brad,” Malaya continued in a sing-songy voice as Hailey sat on the bed. “He plays lacrosse.”
Rhia looked as if she could strangle her sister at that moment and Hailey chuckled. “Okay, why don’t you head on over to your bedroom and I’ll be in there in a few minutes to tuck you in.”
Malaya fake pouted. “I’m too old to be tucked in,” she told Hailey with a toss of her head.
“Well then, I guess we can take that stuffed sheep you’ve got on your bed away too, since you’re too old.”
“No!” Malaya immediately replied, scooting off the bed and heading for the door. “I don’t want to hear this conversation anyway. Batang lalaki panganganak,” she added before sticking her tongue out at Rhia and escaping before her older sister could give chase.
“She’s such a baby,” Rhia complained.
Hailey looked at the teenager, still holding her chuckle over Malaya’s signature younger sister behavior. While she’d been hired to teach these girls English, it had only take a week away from their father and the confines he put on them, to realize they—unlike Ronnel—had excellent command of the language. Upon hiring her, Ronnel, had told Hailey that the girls had only attended schools in Bacolod where the family had previously lived. But once they were at the beach and it was just them and Hailey, the girls confided that they spoke perfect English because of the tutor they’d had for the last two years. They’d been traveling a lot, staying in different places for different amounts of time so their father had hired a full time tutor to travel with them. The tutor had taught them to speak and write English. Ronnel always spoke to his children in Filipino and he expected them to do the same, saying English was only required when they were in school or among the American people. That in their house they would uphold their heritage.
Hailey had been an only child, her parents having died in a car accident when she was four years old. Her grandparents had raised her so there was a certain amount of solitude that over the years she’d come to both appreciate and despise. Watching Rhia and Malaya together had become a private joy for her, one she knew she was going to miss at the end of the summer.
“So, first, let’s be clear,” Hailey said bunching her dress between her legs as she sat in the center of her bed. “Boys are not boring as your sister just said.”
Rhia tilted her head, a sheet of dark, luxurious hair flanking her left shoulder as she did. In a couple of years the girl was going to be simply stunning. Hailey fully expected to be standing in the grocery store one day, picking up a fashion magazine and seeing Rhia’s warm brown eyes staring back at her.
“He is American,” Rhia immediately confided.
The young girl stood from the chair, coming to sit on the edge of the bed across from Hailey.
“And he’s older,” she continued on a sigh, sliding to the center of the bed and crossing her legs like Hailey.
Rhia was sixteen. Older could mean two or three years, but Hailey suspected that was off the mark.
“How much older?” she asked wanting to proceed cautiously with this particular conversation.
“A lot. I think.” Rhia shrugged. “He called the house and I answered. We spoke for only a few minutes but—”
“But you fell instantly in love with his voice,” Hailey said thinking of a certain, smooth as honey, voice that echoed in her mind all too often as well.
“He gave me his name and his number,” Rhia continued.
Hailey watched the girl’s slim fingers clasp together, then apart as she flattened her palms on her knees.
“Did he ask for your father, Rhia? Is that why he called the house phone?”
“No, actually, he had the wrong number. Then we began talking and I liked him. I think he liked me.” Rhia shrugged. “I guess that’s why he gave me his number.”
Hailey nodded.
“And you want to call him sometime. You want to see him.” She was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. After listening to Jerald talk of suspicions that Ronnel was involved in a human trafficking ring, Hailey wondered at just what type of people could be calling or coming here. She also pondered if she should be afraid, if some of what Jerald said may have been true. But no, he was probably just saying all that to close the deal. Ronnel couldn’t possibly be a danger to her. Not when he’d hired her to also be there for his daughters.
“I just liked talking to him, that’s all,” Rhia was saying as she fell back onto the pillows. “Have you ever wanted to do something that you know is wrong, Hailey? I mean, deep down inside you know it’s really wrong and yet you want to do it anyway. You want to do it badly.”
Hailey only had to think about that question for a moment before the answer was clear. But she did not speak it immediately to Rhia, this very impressionable teenager. She did not scream “hell yes!” in response to her question as she thought again of the man with the voice and the hands, and that tongue. The kiss from earlier still replayed over and over in her mind.
“I think—” Hailey began, still trying to formulate what would be the best way to answer Rhia in her mind.
There was a muted buzzing sound and seconds later Hailey’s purse fell from the nightstand. Hailey jumped and leaned over the side of the bed to pick it up. She pulled her phone from the side pouch, sighing as she read the message. It was from Jerald. He was giving her twenty minutes to get to the address he’d typed in or, in his exact words, “I’m coming to get you.”
What the hell? Hailey thought with a frown. Who the hell did this guy think he was?
“Is that from a guy?” Rhia asked, leaning over so she too could see the phone’s screen.
Hailey immediately tossed the phone back into her purse. “No,” she lied. “It’s just something I ordered. The company’s telling me the package has arrived.”
Rhia nodded, using both hands to tuck her hair behind her ears. “And you have to go pick it up. That’s cool. We can talk tomorrow I guess. During our lesson time.” Rhia grinned then as the girls often did when they referenced the time that Hailey was supposed to be teaching them English. Instead, they usually ended up doing things like shoppin
g online or playing cards for money. Malaya was ahead by three dollars and was quickly becoming a master at Go Fish.
Before Hailey could reply, or tell another lie, she thought with irritation, Rhia had slipped off the bed.
“I’ll tuck her in so you can get going. Dad won’t like it if you are out too late.”
Hailey looked immediately at the sixteen year old who stared at her knowingly. Too knowingly, she frowned.
“Thanks, Rhia,” was all she managed to say, watching as the girl left her alone in the room.
Pulling out the cell phone again, Hailey looked at the message.
She wasn’t going.
She wasn’t going to allow Jerald Carrington to suck her into whatever he wanted from her.
Hadn’t she already decided that she could not do that?
But Jerald was…what exactly was he? The man she couldn’t keep her hands off, the one that made her ache with desire? Or the distraction that might cost her everything?
Tapping the phone to her forehead and closing her eyes she continued to let thoughts filter through her mind.
Would he actually show up here?
Would he even know where here is?
Of course he would. She remembered the way he’d sat calmly and coolly at that table telling what Hailey felt were some of Ronnel’s darkest secrets. If what he’d said were actually true. Maybe she should have done a more thorough background check on the man, she probably could have found out about the allegations against his company as well. But Hailey admitted—at least to herself—that she hadn’t bothered to dig that deep. All that had mattered was he did own those companies and he did have the capacity to compensate her for her time.
So that’s exactly what she intended to do.
She owed Jerald Carrington nothing. Their night on the island had been mutually beneficial and brief—as evidenced by the way he’d planned to simply walk her to her room and then fly off to where she now knew was L.A. Their new connection was a distant one, or rather one she planned to keep distant. That was something she needed to make very clear to him, now before Ronnel found out that she knew him.
Grabbing her purse she hopped off the bed, hurriedly slipping her feet into her sandals once more before leaving her room. She was going to see Jerald Carrington and she was going to tell him not to contact her again, that what they shared—on the island and in the ladies’ room—was done.
It was over.
CHAPTER 3
It started the moment she walked into his penthouse.
She’d taken tentative steps and Jerald had closed and locked the door behind her. When she’d turned, poised to say something he’d simply reacted, moving in, slipping his arms around her waist and taking her mouth in searing hot kiss. The second their tongues collided he could swear he’d seen fireworks go off and for Jerald that was not just a metaphor. Something exploded inside his body and his mind, awakening a hunger that had long lay dormant.
His dick was already hard, his body poised and ready to be reunited with hers once again. His hands roamed up and down, from the rounded globes of her ass, up to the thin straps of her dress that crisscrossed over her back. Her hair was up in some sort of clip, the nape of her neck soft and warm as he cupped a hand there, tilting her head back so that he could kiss her even deeper. He wanted to devour her, right here in the foyer of his condo he wanted to be totally consumed by this woman he thought he’d never see again.
After the first startled seconds she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close, diving into that kiss as ferociously as he had. And when he reached down to her ass again, lifting her into his arms, she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist. Jerald began walking, knowing without a doubt where he wanted to take her first tonight. Because in his mind he’d already planned a very long night of exploring every inch of her body, taking the time he hadn’t when they were on the island. When she was just an employee of The Corporation.
That thought had him pausing at the first of the steel steps that led up to his bedroom.
“You aren’t being paid for tonight,” he said pulling his mouth slowly from hers. “This isn’t a part of your job assignment.”
She looked at him as if she hadn’t understood a word he’d said, her eyes glossy, lips swollen from his kiss. Then she pulled her arms back, moving until he released her and her legs straightened, sandal-clad feet clicking as they made contact with the steps.
“I don’t work for you,” she said finally, brushing her palms down the front of her dress. “As a matter of fact,” she continued, pushing past him and stepping down so that she was now more in the living room area than about to go upstairs where he could lay her down on his bed.
“That’s what I came here to tell you.”
Jerald turned as she proceeded to talk, taking a deep breath in between sentences. Her cheeks were flush. A long strap crossing over her body ending at a box shaped purse nestled on her right side. The strap of the purse separated her breasts—her full, probably somewhere around D or DD cup, breasts—that made his mouth water.
“I work for the man you’re trying to destroy. Being here with you right now is likely jeopardizing my job and I cannot afford to let that happen.”
She’d started speaking but Jerald had been looking at her body, remembering his hands lifting her dress and finding her pussy hot and wet for him earlier tonight in that bathroom. As such, he hadn’t really heard what she’d said. Or at least he thought he hadn’t.
“What are you saying?” he asked, feeling his brow furrowing now. His gaze returned to her face just in time to see her tongue take a swipe along her lips before retreating back inside her mouth. His dick twitched as he folded his arms over his chest.
“You’re working for Ronnel Mendoza? That’s why you were with him tonight?”
“Yes,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “I work for him and so I cannot be here with you.”
Every muscle in Jerald’s body tensed, not with desire, but with irritation this time. He did not want her with anyone else. Not in another man’s bed and definitely not letting another man enter her.
She was his.
The thought came quick and shockingly, like a splash of ice cold water and he wasn’t sure how to react. He was only certain of one thing.
Jerald took a step towards here.
“You cannot work for him,” he said slowly and was deathly serious. “Who is your representative at The Corporation? I’ll call them right now and take care of this.”
She was already shaking her head, backing away from him. Jerald kept moving toward her.
“Tell me the name and I’ll make sure they know you are only to work with me.”
Because he couldn’t stand the thought of her with someone else. He, the man that had long since decided that there would never be one woman for him, never one person that would accept every dark and eerie part of his past, would never desire a monogamous relationship. He’d also long since gotten over the pain and disappointment of that fact. His parents had a happy and flourishing marriage. And lately, it seemed as if his brothers had also been blessed in that department. Because of one damning night Jerald knew he wouldn’t have such a prosperous fate. But that was fine. He’d told himself that a long time ago and he’d meant it. He didn’t need love and forever. He only needed the urgency of right now.
And in this moment that urgency was named Hailey.
“The Corporation? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I work for Mr. Mendoza. I’m a translator for him and his daughters, that’s why I was at the meeting tonight. I don’t know about any corporation or a representative,” she said with a frown.
Then she reached up a hand to tuck away a couple fly-away strands of hair behind her ear.
“What happened in Turks and Caicos, that was absolutely consensual,” she began before taking another deep breath and releasing it somewhat hastily. “But it was only one night. Nothing more.”
Did she say she didn’t work for Th
e Corporation? Jerald had thought she had since she’d been sitting on the beach directly across from the balcony which lead to the ballroom at the resort where they’d been hosting their annual summer celebration. He’d placed an order for the night and told the representative to send the woman he’d hired for the night out to the beach where he’d gone for some fresh air. When he’d seen her sitting there, her legs partially gaped open, the material of her skirt sticking seductively to her thighs, her breasts all but pouring out of her bikini top, he’d assumed she was there for him.
“You’re a translator for Mendoza?” he asked by way of clarifying and trying to wrap his mind around the fact that she’d slept with him that night and wasn’t on The Corporation’s payroll or otherwise beholden to do so.
“Yes,” she replied. “That is why I cannot be here with you.”
Her words were cut off as he’d moved so close and she’d backed away so many times that finally her back smacked against the beige painted wall. The softness of her breasts pressing into his chest almost made Jerald gasp. He moved in even closer until she was still trying to get away but instead went up on her tiptoes, her eyes widening, and mouth gaping slightly.
“But you want to be here with me,” he said to her.
Just as she had wanted to be with him that night on the beach. The mere thought had his pulse quickening.
“I…,” she hesitated. “I wanted to tell you in person why this couldn’t continue.”
Jerald traced a finger along her jaw, touching a small mole on the left side of her face.
“It can’t? Even though I can tell that’s not how you really feel?” he asked her, his gaze holding hers captive. “You want to be here with me, don’t you Hailey? You want me to take you again and again.”
She started to say something but then stopped, shaking her head slowly.
“I can’t,” was her eventual reply.
“But you want to,” Jerald persisted. “Say it, Hailey. Tell me you want me to take you again.”
