by Mia Carson
“How long were you standing there?” she asked.
“Long enough to watch that ass of yours move in the most delicious ways,” he replied as he reached her and kissed her deeply. “Something smells good.”
“I threw some stuff together you had lying around,” she said and turned back around in his arms to face the stove. He rested his chin on her shoulder. “You sure you’re ready for me to move in with you?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t sure.” He hugged her close and she laughed. “Are you sure?”
She moved the potatoes, scrambled eggs, and bacon around in the skillet. “Just one thing.”
“Anything for you.”
She spun around in his arms and looked him in the eye. “No matter where this might go with us, I want you to know that I care about you—a lot. And if this ends badly, I won’t hold it against you.”
Sam frowned as he leaned back. “Why do you think it’ll end badly?”
“Because that’s how everything else in my life has ended,” she muttered harshly. “It would be stupid of me to think this could stay just the way it is.”
“No, it’s not,” he said sternly. “Do you want to be here with me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then there’s nothing else you have to worry about,” he said and kissed her. “Except that I’m going to be so late for work.” His body stiffened, and an echo of a screaming man filled his ears. He scrunched his eyes shut tightly as if expecting a hit to come at any second, but the hands that smoothed back his hair were gentle and Harley’s voice broke through the yelling in his mind.
“Sam, what’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.
“I’m never late. I’m not supposed to be late,” he grunted, annoyed.
“Let me guess. Your dad.” She sighed and stood on her toes. “You are a grown man. Your dad is not going to hurt you ever again. Not while I’m here.”
He grinned as his body slowly relaxed. “You’re going to protect me, huh? You and your mighty fists of fury?” He picked up her hands and kissed each one.
“If that’s what it comes down to.”
“I’m not sure what I would do without you.” He worried he was getting too sappy, but she didn’t seem to care as she hugged him as hard as she could, kissing his bare chest. “If you start that up, I’m not going to get to work at all today.”
“What’s wrong with that?” she asked as her lips crept towards his nipple.
“I have a meeting at noon with my board,” he muttered through a groan as she nipped his skin and her hand cupped his package. “A very important meeting.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” she purred. “I’m still off work today.”
Sam’s eyes rolled back and he tried to be strong, but he’d waited too long to have Harley in his life. He reached around her to turn off the burner. He picked her up, flung her up over his shoulder as she cackled loudly, and he carried her back to his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them.
When he made it to the office twenty minutes before the meeting was to start, he was greeted by Marcus standing in the doorway to his office. “Is everything ready to go?” Sam asked, moving past his friend to drop off his jacket and pick up a stack of files.
“Everything except you,” Marcus pointed out. “You’re late. Very late, actually. Like three hours late.”
“Yeah, and? Are you going to give me a lecture?”
“No, I want to congratulate you and thank whatever made you late for the first time since you started this damn company.”
Sam sighed as they hurried towards the conference room. “Harley.”
“Well then, I am happy to see you here at all,” his friend teased. “From the look in your eyes, you considered skipping this meeting completely. There’s still time, you know.”
“I’m good. Besides, I’m giving her time to settle in.”
“Settle in…as in settle in to your place?” Marcus grabbed his arm and yanked him to a stop barely short of the conference room door. “Did you ask her to move in with you?”
“If I say yes, are you going to give me shit for it?”
Marcus pushed his tongue against his upper lip but shook his head. “I’m happy for you, man, really. It sounds like you found what you’ve been missing.”
“I think I have,” he replied with a crooked grin. “It’s crazy, feeling like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like my life has meaning again,” he tried to explain. “Like I have a reason for waking up in the morning, just so I can see her and hear her laugh. And it’s all because of you.”
Marcus shook his hand with a happy grin. “You’re welcome. Now, do me a favor and find me a woman just like her.”
“She does have a sister, but I think she’s a little young for you.”
“You never know. Introduce us?” he asked with a wink.
“Hell no,” Sam answered with a laugh. “Let’s get this meeting started so I can get home. I have a fund to start and a job to offer Harley.”
Sam would run it by his board while they were all gathered together, anyway. If they approved it, he would get Marcus started on the paperwork and ask Harley about it that night at dinner. Before he left, he had given her a spare key to his place and told her to make herself at home. He was barely at work for an hour before he wished he was at home with her. A voice warned in the back of his mind that he’d moved too fast, but with Harley, there was only one speed.
***
Harley tossed a few more t-shirts in her suitcase and opened the drawers of her dresser to grab panties—not that she would be wearing them much around Sam. She smirked as she found her sexy ones and tossed them in after the shirts. Her sister was gone for the day. Karen had managed to get her a job at the diner she worked at, and the past few days, Harley saw her sister grow up and act more responsibly than she had in years. There was hope after all.
Yeah, until you have to face down Ricky and his friend, she told herself, and all her happy feelings disappeared.
She nearly told Sam that morning, ready to take whatever he threw at her, but she bit back the words at the last second. She was scared of losing the only good thing to come into her life in so long, but it wasn’t fair to him. She was the one who decided to make the deal with Ricky and she would figure a way out of this.
But she knew without a doubt she couldn’t sleep with Devois, not now, not with Sam so close to her heart. Mind racing as she finished packing, she knew she had to find a way around this situation. For now, she would play along with Ricky and let him think she was still game, but when the moment came, she would have to tell Sam everything and convince him that running was their only option. Head into the Midwest and disappear.
The car watching her apartment was gone when she arrived today, and she let herself hope Ricky was backing off. Maybe he would be content with keeping the half million and let her and Brianna go without having to deal with Devois. Five-hundred-thousand was good enough to make up for a ruined deal, in her opinion. She finished packing in a rush and texted Karen and Brianna one more time. She told them that morning about her plan to move out for a bit. She worried they would think she was moving too fast, but Karen was the first to tell her it was about time she found someone who cared for her—really cared. Brianna seemed more hesitant but told Harley to do what she wanted. She deserved a chance to enjoy her life after everything she had put her through.
Harley left a note for her sister to let her know that no matter what happened, they would get through this mess together, locked the door, and headed downstairs. When she reached her truck, she tossed her suitcase in the bed.
“You know,” a man said behind her, causing her to jump, “when the other women auction themselves off, they hope to be as lucky like you.”
“Ricky,” she snapped when she turned around. “What are you doing here?”
“Simply checking to make sure you’re not running. That would be bad news for you, and even worse for your sis
ter,” he sneered and reached for her hair.
She smacked his hand away and straightened. “I’m not running, you asshole. I’m moving across the city. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Of course not, though I assume this man you’re with understands what you still owe me, yes? I would hate for this…unfortunate situation to destroy the love you seem to have found thanks to my club.”
“It’s not thanks to your club.”
“Is it not? You owe your happy new life to me, and I expect fair compensation for it.” He grabbed her chin in his fingers and dragged her closer, breathing in her hair. “Don’t forget what I could do to you or your sister. Hell, I’ll even come after your new sugar daddy if that’s what it takes to get what I’m due.”
“Don’t you dare touch him,” she snarled and tore herself free of his grip. “I said I would do it and I will.” She prayed he’d buy the lie. If he knew now she wasn’t going to do it, she would lose everything.
“That’s good to know. Mr. Devois will be out of the country for the next two weeks, but he is extremely interested in making a new deal with me involving you. I will be in touch and I expect you to answer.”
“Why can’t you just keep the whole amount I was purchased for and let us go on with our lives?” she asked, wishing her words didn’t waver so badly with fear of what would happen in two weeks. “Isn’t that more than enough?”
“Not even close, sweetheart. No, I want the deal your sister guaranteed me. Finish what you started, Harley, or you will regret it.”
“What is this deal for, anyway?”
His eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?”
“I think I have a right to know since I’m the one who’s getting fucked for it,” she snapped.
He cackled. “A good point, dearie. Let’s just say between you and me that he’s the heavy hitter in town, and together, we can turn my lucrative club into something so much more. The sinners in this damn city won’t be able to live without me once it all goes down.” His face darkened and his hand shifted inside his jacket. Harley gulped, seeing the butt of a pistol holstered at his side. “I suggest those be the last questions you ask on the matter. Understand?”
She glared at him but nodded once, and he relaxed. He blew her a kiss, and she ran to the driver’s side of her truck and floored it away from the curb, squealing her tires.
Her hands hadn’t stopped shaking after she was safe inside Sam’s apartment. She knew her sister had been involved in some sort of criminal activity, but from what Ricky said, it appeared both his clubs were simply a front for something worse. Drugs—she knew she’d seen drugs that night—and maybe even human trafficking. The women auctioned off might’ve been there by choice, but how many others were roped into working for him because of debts owed? Or worse. She couldn’t sit still the rest of the afternoon as her perfect future with Sam slowly crumbled apart before her eyes. He’d had a hard enough life already, and getting him involved in her sister’s mess was not fair, not after everything he did for her without even realizing it. One way or another, she would get her sister to safety and Ricky off their asses.
Even if, in the end, she had to leave Sam to do it, she would. She had to keep him safe.
Chapter 8
A few days after Harley moved in, Sam fought to remember what his life was like without her tucked against his side every night. His board approved the fund he wanted to start to assist abused spouses and their families. When he asked Harley to oversee it, she jumped at the chance and quit her waitressing job the next day. He introduced her to several of his employees from the accounting team to help get the fund off the ground and organize their first black-tie function for it.
Every day was a new adventure Sam couldn’t wait to get started. The alarm sounded, and he groaned as he rolled over to turn it off. “Five more minutes,” Harley murmured against his side.
“You can, I can’t,” he said with a sigh. “Meeting.”
“Skip it.”
“You are a terrible influence on me.” He kissed her cheek and brushed her hair behind her ears. “Don’t ever stop.”
Her lips curled into a sleepy smile as she snuggled up with his pillow after he’d slipped out of the bed and stretched. His legs were sore, but he loved the workout every night, and evening, and most mornings, too. Sex with other women he’d dated became tiresome and boring after a while. With Harley, each time showed him a different side of her and opened another bit of his heart he’d closed off for so long. Soon, the whole thing would be hers and he’d never want it back.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Seven, why?”
She yelped and jumped out of the bed, rushing past him into his walk-in closet. She scrambled for a skirt and sweater, scooped up a pair of heels, and darted into the bathroom. He followed, holding up a pair of lacey panties she’d forgotten in her rush to dress.
“As much as I’d love to fantasize about you without these all day long,” he said, holding them out on his finger, “you might want them.”
She took them quickly and stepped into them. “I totally forgot, I’m meeting the coordinator this morning.”
“I thought that was tomorrow?’
“I moved it to today because she had something come up. And I’m going to be late!”
“Well, if you’re already going to be late…” he mused and scooped her up into his arms. She scolded him as she laughed, and he deposited her back in bed and quickly removed the panties she’d just put on.
“Sam! You’re the one who put me in charge of this, remember?” she pointed out then sucked in a breath when he went down on her, licking her throbbing lips and sucking hard on her clit. “Jesus Christ!”
“Nope, just me,” he murmured, rubbing his stubble on her inner thigh, which he knew drove her insane.
His mouth returned and he penetrated her with his tongue. She moaned around a curse, but she shifted beneath him and he let her shove him onto his back. “What are you—” His words cut off on a strangled groan when her lips closed around his tip and drew him into her mouth. His eyes rolled back and he grabbed for the sheets, yanking them free of the bed and not even caring.
She laughed darkly around him, drawing him even deeper into her mouth with each hard suck. He couldn’t take it and lifted her so she straddled his chest. She paused in her sucking until he buried his mouth in her cleft, spreading her lips with his fingers so he could drive her over the edge. With every moan around his cock, he gripped her hips harder and his cock throbbed with the need to spill into her mouth. She was close. The subtle shiver in her thighs was the giveaway, and he licked her lips as he fought to maintain control for a few moments longer. Her mouth made it so damn hard, though, and he faltered when her hands joined in the fun, sliding down his length in time with her mouth.
He thought about the night at the club and his finger slipped from her ass cheek to her ass and he gingerly pressed his finger there. She shuddered, and he felt the orgasm tear through her body in a fierce trembling that made her suck even harder on him. His body stiffened beneath hers as he thrust up into her mouth and she took him in as far as she could. He spilled into her as she soaked his mouth with her climax. They panted for breath together as she slid off his body and they shook together from the intensity of the orgasm.
“I don’t think I can move,” she muttered, her words slurring. “Holy shit.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d…go for that,” he gasped.
“I’m not complaining.”
He lifted his head and stared up her skirt at her soaked thighs. “You might want to shower before you leave.”
She frowned as she sat up and shook her head, laughing. “Care to join me?”
“If you want to leave this penthouse today, I’d better not,” he said as he slid his hand up her leg.
She grunted and leapt off the bed. She stuck her tongue out at him before she closed the bathroom door. The water turned on a minute later. Sam fell back to the bed as h
is body slowly settled from their latest exertion. He wouldn’t have to work out ever again if they kept up this pace. By the time she exited the bathroom, dressed again with her wet hair pulled up in a clip, she leaned in for a good-bye kiss.
“We’re going out tonight,” he told her.
“Oh, are we? Any particular reason?”
“It’s my friend’s birthday, actually, and he would really like to meet the woman who, as he calls it, has saved my ass from becoming a sulking, bitter old man.”
“You’re not old,” she teased and poked him in the chest. “That’s next month.”
He glowered at her and she planted a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ll remember that in six years when you join me in the thirties.”
She paused at the door and her eyes glimmered with unspoken love. “I look forward to it.”
Once she was gone, he took a quick shower and eventually got his ass into the office. He’d been so close to telling her he loved her and wanted to be with her six years down the road—even twenty years, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her—but a whispering voice of doubt in the back of his mind said he was moving too fast. He feared there was still a chance, no matter how slim, that his relationship with Harley would fall apart because of him if he wasn’t careful.
“Late again,” Marcus said with a whistle. “You know, I’m really starting to like this Harley more and more.”
“Who’s Harley?” Betty asked, joining them in Sam’s office.
Her tone was sharper than normal, and Sam glanced at Marcus before he said, “The woman I’m seeing. You’ll like her. She’ll be running the new fund set up for abused and struggling spouses in the Vegas area.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were involved with Ms. Smith.”
