The device came in the form of a square, black, slim-line disk a quarter of the size of Jayce’s thumb nail. It fed the sound recording to either his phone or a tiny portable radio, also included in the package. Kyoji had delivered, and now Jayce just needed to get it into her apartment.
It was tucked into his jacket pocket now as he rode the elevator up to Zahra’s apartment. Their conversation on the phone had been slightly awkward and he wondered what she had been doing but gave it little more thought; he was too distracted by his new toy and he wanted it set up tonight. The sooner he had more information, the sooner he could finalize his plan.
Jayce knocked on the door and was greeted by a relaxed and smiling Zahra Foster. He second-guessed his perception of their conversation; it was feasible that she had just been unprepared for him to stop over unexpectedly, this was still a new relationship, after all.
“I’m glad you’re home,” Jayce said and walked through the open door. He took a deep breath; being in her presence affected him in more ways than one—lust mixed with revenge was a dangerous combination, and every second that he was with her was a battle to keep his mind calm, keep it focused.
He ran his hands through her hair and kissed her. His pulse increased ten-fold and he was instantly aroused. She could make him hard in seconds; she knew exactly what turned him on and, given their history, he supposed it made sense—they had been lovers before.
Jayce groaned when she squeezed his ass and drew him to her, and he could feel her tits brush against his chest. “I’ve got an hour,” Jayce said, sucking on her earlobe.
Her eyes sparkled. “Kitchen.”
“This is why I like you,” Jayce growled as he lifted her up onto the counter. She was wearing a short skirt that had ridden up to her waist and she opened her legs wide, teasing him. Her heels rested on the edge, tilting her hips back, giving him the perfect view. She slipped her panties to the side and rubbed two fingers over her clit in a slow, circular motion. Jayce couldn’t draw his eyes away, completely captivated by her performance. She separated her fingers, opening her folds and he could see how wet she was.
“Oh, baby.” Jayce’s chest rose sharply and his eyes stayed locked on her pussy, but his hand moved to his own crotch, stroking himself as he watched her do the same.
“Jayce?” She was panting as she said his name, and he stepped forward, between her legs. He took her fingers, the ones she had been using to play with herself, and held them in front of her mouth. “Open,” he told her and she parted her lips. She sucked on her fingers and licked them clean, never breaking eye contract with him. A guttural moan escaped his chest and he undid his pants, sliding his thick cock against her wet pussy, teasing her bud.
His mouth crashed down on hers and their kiss was spellbinding. Nothing mattered in that moment, nothing other than pleasing her.
Jayce lifted her top over her head and undid her bra. The sight of her heavy and swollen breasts almost undid him.
“Please,” she begged him, panting in his ear. She reached for his cock, wet with her juices, and put the tip at her opening. Jayce pushed into her, watching her body arch in response. The sound of their frenzied, carnal moaning filled her apartment.
“Lie down,” Jayce said, pushing on her flat stomach. Zahra wrapped her legs around his waist and he pushed deeper inside her. Her hips, painted with red marks from his hands, rocked against him, matching him in intensity. He pushed deeper still and her eyes closed and her lips parted. She tightened her legs, drawing him in tighter, and she felt so good. In and out, over and over—he could never get enough of her.
He looked at her flushed cheeks and knew she was close now. “Let go,” Jayce said, watching her face transform as she climaxed. Jayce slammed into her once more before he pulled out and blew his load over her navel. He collapsed onto her, breathless.
Zahra lay beneath him with flush cheeks and a glow that only an orgasm could produce. She sat up, pushing him back, and brought her mouth to his. She kissed him sweetly, her tongue gentle and fluid. Whether she realized it or not, she how to make him weak, how to break his defenses—Raven had been Dryas’ greatest weakness and again in this lifetime, Zahra was his greatest weakness. When he wasn’t with her, it was so easy to plot his revenge and to be the callous, calculating man, but when he was with her, his resolve broke down. It is a shame Raven was such a bitch, since we could have been so good together, Jayce thought.
“What are you thinking?” Zahra asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Jayce snapped out of his reverie and back to the present moment. “That I want to stay here with you all night.” He kissed the tip of her nose and pressed his forehead against hers.
“I have plans, but I can always cancel,” she said in a singsong kind of voice.
“Don’t tempt me. Unfortunately, my father will be arriving shortly and he doesn’t appreciate being kept waiting.” Jayce looked at the time, which was fast running out. He had fifteen minutes to get out of her apartment and back to his. He reached for the small towel, cleaning her and then himself, and then helped her down off the counter.
She kissed his lips and then walked off to her bedroom. Jayce was dressed, with his jacket on, when she came back. He made the excuse he needed to use her bathroom. He looked over his shoulder, but she hadn’t followed him. Jayce retrieved the disk from his pocket and peeled back the red corner. The top layer came off easily and he stuck it where he had been instructed to—on the back of her bedside table. He could turn it on and off remotely, and he would do that when he got back to the office but for now, it was securely fastened, despite his shaking hands. Jayce went into the bathroom, flushed the toilet, washed his hands and went back to the kitchen that he would never look at the same way again.
“I don’t know what my schedule is going to be like this weekend with my father in town, but I’ll see you on Monday night, and keep next Saturday night free.”
She adjusted the robe sash around her waist, which had come loose, and then put both hands on his chest. “Thank you for stopping by,” Zahra said and gave him one mesmerizing kiss goodbye.
*
His father was already at his apartment when Jayce arrived. He already knew what the man’s first words were going to be, and he was right: “You’re late.”
Jayce greeted his father with a hug, a gesture his mother had always insisted on. “Evening. Yes, I know I’m late, I had to run an important errand.” Jayce hung his jacket on the dining chair. He retrieved a bottle of sake and two glasses and placed them on the coffee table between the couches. He sat opposite his father and poured them both a drink.
Mr. Tohmatsu Senior raised one of his thin, wispy brows. “Judging by that lipstick smudge on your collar, I assume this pressing errand had something to do with Zahra Foster.”
Jayce regretted not checking himself in the mirror before he left. It was a careless mistake. “Correct. Contrary to what it may look like, though, the errand did have a purpose.”
Mr. Tohmatsu shifted his body and laid his arm across the back of the couch. He looked smaller; age was taking its toll. “Why are you doing this, Jayce? Let it go, it’s in the past. She’s not the same woman who hurt you.”
“It’s not in the past! It’s haunting both of us today. If I let this go, it’s never going to be resolved. I need to balance this debt, I need to end this.”
“My son, who are you to play God? We must not punish, that’s not our role. And anyway, how do you know the debt hasn’t already been paid?”
“It hasn’t, I know it hasn’t.” Jayce had no proof, but his intuition was good and he always trusted his gut: in business and in life. “I have spent lifetimes searching for her. There is pain in my soul that has stayed with me for hundreds of years. Believe me, the debt has not been paid.” Jayce was adamant and his father needed only to look at him to see it.
“You can’t be certain of that nor do you know that what you are planning is the only way to repay the debt. I think she’s come bac
k to you again for another reason.” Thin lines creased his forehead as his mind went deeper in thought.
“And what would that be?” Jayce asked, tired of the conversation.
“I can’t tell you that, only you can know why, but perhaps there is another lesson to be learned here.” Mr. Tohmatsu sighed. “I should never have allowed your mother to take you to see her, to see Igraine. But those nightmares… You screamed the house down night after night. We had to do something, but we shouldn’t have let her show you the things she did. Look at what it has done to you! You were raised better than this, Jayce.”
“I was raised to be successful.” Jayce’s answers were snappy and oozing scorn; he was pushing the respect boundary. He took a deep breath and leaned forward to pour two more glasses of sake.
“Tell me, what is your plan exactly?”
Jayce took a mouthful of the wine, letting it swirl in his mouth for a minute. “I’m going to make her fall in love with me, break her heart and then take away everything she values.” The first part was crucial. Betrayal is painful, but when it’s done by the one you love, it is soul-destroying.
The corner of his father’s lip turned up on one side, a slight flare in his eyes. “And you think you can do that without falling in love with her, too? Or, maybe, you’ve never stopped loving her. Have you considered that?”
That very thought had plagued Jayce’s mind for weeks. Dryas had loved Raven so completely, a cosmic force that defied logic and reason. Does that kind of love ever die?
“I don’t and I won’t ever again.” He said it as much to convince himself as his father.
“I hope for her sake, and for yours, that she does make you fall in love with her. Women are powerful creatures. Just look what your mother did to me.” His father chuckled softly, his face transforming at the thought of Eva Tohmatsu. “On another note, I suppose you’ve thought about how you’re going to replace her at Mason. I looked over her final concepts for Church Street on my flight—she is very, very good, Jayce.”
She was very good—too good—and it was the one problem Jayce had yet to find a solution for. He was scoping talent from competitors but thus far he had come up empty handed. He still had some time up his sleeve, though, because he wasn’t going to make his final moves until Church Street was done. That was a risk he couldn’t take. “I’m working on it, and it will not interfere with business, so you don’t need to worry.”
His father shook his head. “I’m not just worried about business. You could ruin your life and everything you’ve worked hard for. Please don’t do this, Jayce. I promised your mother I would look after you… She would kill us both if she could see us now.”
“Are you going to stop me?” The question hung in the air, suspended like a dagger. If his father said yes, he would obey, he would have to—he would never disrespect the man who had given him so much.
He ran his finger along his jaw, a habit Jayce had inherited from his father. “No, I don’t think I’ll need to. I think Zahra will do that herself.” And that was his father’s biggest mistake, Jayce thought.
*
She wore white. A fitted dress that hugged her tall, svelte figure, and Jayce thought she’d never looked more like an angel. Zahra Foster walked into the restaurant flanked by Holly McCabe and Kelly Luca—an ambitious threesome. Kelly marched ahead, determined to be the first to introduce herself. This girl should’ve been born with balls, Jayce thought, smiling. “Kelly,” he said, shaking her hand, “please meet Mr. Tohmatsu Senior.”
Jayce watched over their introduction but his interest was on the woman behind her, the only woman he had eyes for. He didn’t need to touch her, or even speak to her, to feel that hum of energy ignite. He hadn’t seen her since Saturday but he’d been listening to her sleep. His device was working perfectly but unfortunately she either hadn’t had another dream or she wasn’t talking in them. Jayce assumed the first assumption was correct because her breathing had been slow and steady all night, which would be unlikely if Raven was appearing in her dreams and tormenting humankind.
“Zahra,” Jayce greeted her, his voice flat and even, treating her like they barely knew each other. “Mr. Tohmatsu Senior,” he said, gesturing to his right again, something he would do over and over again tonight.
Zahra smiled and nodded in Jayce’s direction but otherwise focused on his father. She looked directly into his eyes and radiated a warm and welcoming smile. Oh, she was good.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Jayce observed his father carefully, accurately predicting his plan—he intended to unnerve both his son and the woman whose hand he held.
“Zahra Foster, I’ve heard many good things about you. A very talented woman,” he said, his eyebrows raised.
Genuinely surprised, Zahra glanced in Jayce’s direction momentarily before responding. “Well, I can’t take all the credit, I have a very good team. Speaking of, this the assistant lead designer, Holly McCabe.”
It was a swift and crafty move, one that would have worked on anyone but Mr. Thomatsu. He greeted Holly, exchanged a pleasantry, and then returned his attention to Zahra. “We toured Church Street today. I must say my blood pressure skyrocketed as we walked through the development. This field of business is not my forte, it’s my son’s, so I don’t pretend to accurately assess the risk factor but I do know that it’s much higher than I would have liked. In saying that, after seeing your final concepts, I think you might just be able pull it off.”
Zahra straightened her shoulders and tilted her head to the right, which she did a lot, Jayce noted. “Thank you, I’m very confident in the development. It’s a challenging property to work with, but of course there are solutions, as expensive as they are.”
Her gaze diverted to Jayce again now, and his father chuckled. He knew that Jayce had approved a ridiculous budget for her to work with, not that he’d had a choice—if the building wasn’t finished to perfection, the entire project would sink, something that had never happened in Jayce’s career and was certainly not going to happen now.
“Yes, you were lucky you were negotiating with Jayce on that, as I would never have approved it.”
Watching the woman in front of him Jayce thought his father’s comment was a little over confident—she was more guileful than his father gave her credit for. She had put on a good act tonight, not showing a trace of nerves, but Jayce knew that she was nervous because she’d told him as much on the phone last night. Dryas had underestimated Raven and he had paid the consequences for it—Jayce would not repeat that mistake.
Zahra smiled. “Maybe.”
Deciding the conversation had gone on long enough, Jayce motioned for the next staff member to come forward. Zahra took a seat at the dinner table, her attention absorbed once more by Holly McCabe. Jayce was surprised to find he was proud of her—she’d handled his father with grace and respect while still managing to challenge him. If their past hadn’t collided with their future, they could have had a great life together, built businesses together—they could have been the power couple that had it all.
Finally the introductions were over and Jayce sat down next to his father. Zahra was sitting four seats down, on the opposite side of the table, not within talking distance. Again, Jayce knew this was no accident—she’d made sure she was out of the firing line. He only allowed himself to glance at her twice during dinner and neither time had she been looking his way. With every passing hour he’d grown more restless; a four-hour dinner on zero sleep was painful, to say the least.
Zahra stood up and straightened out her dress. Jayce watched her and accurately guessed she was headed for the restrooms. He knew they were located down a long hallway with multiple doors. What were the chances that one of them was unlocked? Unlikely, he thought, but he intended to find out. “I’ll fix the bill,” he said to his father, excusing himself.
Jayce walked toward the hostesses’ table, handed over his credit card, told her he’d be back to sign in a few minutes a
nd then slipped through the door leading to the bathrooms. His pace was fast as he worked his way down the hallway, pushing on each of the handles. Three were open and he peered inside; they were all storerooms but one looked dustier than the others: he’d hit the jackpot. If it were his business he’d nail someone’s ass to the wall for leaving the doors unlocked, but tonight he thanked the incompetent staff of Sol Restaurant and Bar. All he had to do now was wait. Jayce leaned back against the wall and his heel impatiently drummed on the white plaster. The bathroom door creaked and Jayce smiled.
She looked up and down the hallway, but they were alone. “What are you doing?”
He moved, not having a second to spare. Pulling her arm, he dragged her into the dustier room, the one much less likely to be frequented in the next five minutes, and pressed her up against the door, which served two purposes: a) it was his favorite position and b) it ensured that no-one could walk in on them. A high-pitched moan escaped her lips as he kissed her and his hands roamed her body, needing to touch her—she was never close enough for him. Zahra wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged her nails through his hair, sending bolts of electricity right down to his toes. Jayce relished those few minutes with her and then made himself stop. “Hey,” he said.
She looked disorientated, her eyes dazed. “I know I keep asking you this, but are you out of your goddamn mind? Someone could have seen us.”
Jayce shook his head. “No one saw us, I made sure of it. You do need to go back to the table now, though, and I need to go sign the bill.” He brushed his fingers over her hair, smoothing it back into place. He kissed her forehead and then said, ‘Go,’ as he pushed her out the door. He couldn’t leave yet, though, since his dick was rock hard. He took two minutes, exactly, to check his emails, since there was nothing quite like that to kill an erection, and then he put his ear up against the door, listening for any approaching footsteps. Casually, Jayce walked out of the storeroom and returned to the hostess’ desk to sign the receipt. He glanced over at their table; everyone was lost in their conversations and no one suspected a thing—except his father, of course, who shot him a disapproving look.
The Secrets of Their Souls Page 10
