by Cynthia Dane
“Everything is forever on the internet.”
They locked gazes. “It sure is.”
Maxine was the first one to crack by looking away. Come on, you can do better than that. Five seconds? Respect yourself, honey. Maxine was lauded as one of the toughest women to crack. Sloan couldn’t figure out how, when she always won the stare-off whenever they met up. It was how they established their hierarchy when they had that torrid affair three years ago. You ate me up like a sundae, Maxine. The heiress claimed that it was her first and only time on the receiving end of a paddle. Sloan had always taken great pleasure in that knowledge.
“Fine.” She acted as if Maxine had finally gotten to her, when in truth, Sloan had planned for her idea to unfold like this. “I need a favor in return.”
“Ah, yes. Buying off a favor from me.” Maxine clicked her tongue. “I can only imagine what you want this time.” She glanced at the bodyguard. He hears everything. Go ahead. Say what’s on your mind. “Let me say that I’m in a committed relationship now. I’m afraid a repeat of Vancouver is never going to happen.”
“I’m not interested in your body. I’m interested in your connections.”
“What connections? In the charity world? Don’t tell me you’re looking to get into the game full time like I am.”
“No. I want your other connections.”
Maxine furrowed her brows.
“I want your gay friends in my contact list, sweetie.” Sloan slapped her hand on the table. Nobody flinched. “I may know most of their names, but you’re the one who can make the formal introductions. I’m going to need more women like us on my side if I’m to split later this year.”
“My, my.” Maxine chuckled. “I’m the only one you know well enough to ask? While you grease my fucking wheels with money for one of my foundations?”
“I do what I must.”
“Makes me wonder if Vancouver was you laying the groundwork for this moment.”
“All I remember from Vancouver is pussy in my face. I was hardly laying any groundwork for this morning.”
Flustered, Maxine looked away again, this time for a full two seconds. That’s right. Get in her head. Make her remember that you’re the dominant one in this conversation. Someone who used to be dear to Sloan taught her these techniques. She thought the man a disgusting cad now, but his advice often came in handy when she wanted to get her way.
“You’re not only the woman I know well enough to meet like this,” Sloan explained once she had cemented the upper hand. “You’re the only one who has a sliver of a chance to understand where the hell I’m coming from. I know about your own relationship history. Granted, I’ve never divorced a woman, but I assume some things aren’t that different.”
“You’ve got a lot more on your side, that’s for sure.”
“Yes, but it will be a huge public spectacle, and I need to recraft my image as a patron saint of lesbiandom afterward.”
“That might apply if you were actually a lesbian.”
Silence as sharp as Maxine’s nails sliced through the air. “You know nothing about how I identify.” That was as far as Sloan would go on that subject. “Or how I plan to leverage it in the future.”
“Yeah, see, using words like ‘leverage’ in the context of personal identities doesn’t make you a lot of friends.”
“Suppose you could say I’ve been recently inspired by Erica Mann’s ordeal.”
“Yes, I heard about you showing up at her ranch because you were pissed you weren’t invited to her soiree.”
“And you were! See? I need your connections.”
Maxine shook her head. “You’re the most ridiculous person I’ve met, and that says a lot.”
“So you’ll help me?”
“I never said that. Honestly, Sloan, if you want me to help you? I’m going to need more than a few million for my pet charity. You’ll have to do something personal for me, too.”
“Oh, because pumping five million into your LA charity for homeless teens isn’t personal enough?”
“No, it’s not. Maybe if my name were Jenny Bishop, but it’s not, now is it?”
“Don’t tell me you want me to fuck you again. You said so yourself. You’re not the cheating kind.”
“You are?”
Sloan laughed. Maxine had no idea about Leah, but it didn’t make it any less funny. “Only the pearl-clutchers stuck in their holy books would think I’m cheating.” Her laughter almost killed her. “Anyway, what the fuck do you want, then?”
Maxine inhaled a steady breath and drummed those blood-red nails against the table. “Donate to my charity, and we’ll owe each other favors. My favor to you will be connecting you with some of my ‘friends.’ I’ll let you know what your favor is later.”
“Planning on dumping your girlfriend so soon?”
Maxine stood up and shimmied back into her traveling coat. Did she really think that winter in California was cold? This place was a dream compared to the blizzards Chicago saw. “Have a nice weekend, Sloan. Don’t let the drought parch you on your way out of my state.”
Sloan waited until Maxine had left before grabbing her own things and motioning for her bodyguard to follow her to the car outside, where Sean sat in the driver’s seat, ready to go to the private airstrip.
The company plane awaited her. Sloan had snuck out of her own Chicago penthouse to hop the Giles & Sloan plane back to the west coast. Her first stop was in southern California, where Maxine Woodward had agreed to speak with her privately.
Next stop? Portland. Where Leah impatiently waited.
It had been a long week. From the moment Leah’s Yes came to Sloan’s phone, she had thought of nothing but repeating last Monday. I’ve packed in preparation this time. She had also changed up her look, because she always wanted Leah expecting the unexpected.
Sloan fixed her wig during takeoff. Sean sat in a leather chair toward the rear of the plane, while Sloan kept to herself on the loveseat. Neither of them buckled their seatbelts. That was reserved for the flight attendant, who kept both of her blue eyes on Sloan’s visage from where she sat by the cockpit.
Yeah, yeah, I remember you. Sloan was no stranger to this woman. Though you’re easier to recall naked than wearing that silly uniform. She had such an easy job, huh? Serve a couple of drinks, then get her ass to the bedroom. She probably wondered if Sloan would want her company today.
No. Not only was Sloan saving herself for Leah, a woman who was probably wet while she waited for her mistress’s text, but she had lost interest in the flight attendant after finding out she was servicing both Giles & Sloan on their flights. I’d rather not stick my nose anywhere Aaron’s cock has been, thank you.
Aaron had no idea what his business partner was up to today. Not the trip to California, and certainly not the trip to Oregon.
Good. That was how it should be.
“I’m on my way, beautiful.” Sloan texted that as soon as they reached cruising altitude. Only a ninety-minute flight to Portland, and it would be an agonizing one. “Are you having a nice Saturday?
She hated how long it took to get a response. “It will be nicer when you get here.”
“I’ll let you know when we land.” Sloan sat back in her seat and, after making sure neither the flight attendant nor Sean could see her phone screen, went into her image folder and found the graphic selfies Leah had sent her earlier that week. The tastes, sounds, and smells of last Saturday night came flooding back to her mind as soon as she saw the best picture of all.
She glanced at Sean, who was deep in a book. These flights were one of the only times the man could let his guard down while on the job. At least it meant he wasn’t contemplating his boss’s upcoming booty call. He didn’t care. He was paid to go with her, so he went.
“Let’s play a game before I get there, honey,” Sloan texted. “It starts with you putting that bullet I gave you up your pussy exactly ten minutes before I land.”
Chapter 10
The most infuriating thing about waiting for Sloan to get the fuck off her plane wasn’t the sexual frustration Leah’s poor body faced. It was convincing the receptionist at the downtown hotel that, yes, Leah was the one authorized to enter Sloan’s room first. Couldn’t she see the name Leah Vaughn on the guest list?
“Miss… Vaughn…” The receptionist glanced at the baggy coat Leah wore over her inappropriate outfit. The black lingerie was on, not that anyone but her knew it. “I’m afraid that this room requires the primary guest’s signature before I can hand over the key, and since Ms. Sloan is not yet here…”
“She’s here now.” That was the voice that created all the shivers in the world. Leah spun around, expecting to see either the blond or the bald woman she called Margaret Sloan.
Instead, she received yet another visual treat.
Hair as black as a raven’s feathers fell past Sloan’s shoulders and swished with every movement of her feminine hips. A dark jacket with ruched sleeves and gold clasps balanced her ivory white blouse and silver stilettos creating a cacophonous scene in the middle of the hotel lobby. Only a few other guests loitered in the lobby at that time of day, but every one of them turned their heads or looked up from their phones to find the source of those powerful steps.
Sloan was exactly the kind of woman to soak up the attention. It helped that one of the middle-aged female guests in a complimentary office cubicle was slack jawed for more than a few seconds. Is she looking at me with envy? It was definitely envy after Sloan wrapped her arm around Leah and fluttered a butterfly kiss against her cheek. Fake eyelashes? Sloan must have spent her whole plane ride to Portland doing nothing but dressing up for this date.
“I trust that there are no issues with check-in now.” Sloan slid her ID card across the counter. “If it’s all right with you, we’d like to go up to our room as soon as possible.”
Blushing, the woman snatched Sloan’s card and punched something into her computer. “Of course, Ms. Sloan. Everything is already prepared for you.” She handed them both room keys. She only glanced at Sean, standing a few feet away, for a second.
“I trust that his room is ready as well.”
“Of course.”
While the woman finished checking them in, Sloan gave Leah the first public kiss to seal their fates as some risqué couple.
The woman in the cubicle dropped her phone.
“Missed you too, sweetheart,” Sloan muttered in Leah’s ear before grabbing their keys. She signed her name one more time and spared the receptionist no other attention. She only had eyes for Leah, and it was the kind of gaze that made women like her appear more formidable than ever.
“I like your outfit,” Leah squeaked as soon as the elevator doors were closed. Sean had not accompanied them. “I wasn’t expecting you to be…”
Sloan spent two seconds straightening her wig cap in the elevator mirror. “Sometimes I wake up and think… why not be more feminine today? Nobody suspects a woman with hair and makeup like mine. Well, maybe they think I might steal their husbands, but would that really be a loss for any of them if that’s all it takes?”
Leah’s hair was dull and lifeless compared to a damned wig. Look at that sheen! The perfect roots! It feels like real hair! Whoa, what if it was? Wigs made of real hair existed, but weren’t they expensive? Not like Sloan couldn’t afford them, but wigs made from real hair were something Leah associated with old women and cancer survivors. Sloan was neither, as far as she knew.
She didn’t know much about Sloan at all. Google searches hadn’t turned up much. She must pay people to keep her scrubbed off the web. She didn’t have a Wikipedia page. The most information Leah could dredge was Sloan’s age (39) and that she had been born in a Chicago suburb to a surgeon and an architect. She always had money, huh? Enough to partner with a man like Aaron Giles to form their own company. That man did have a Wikipedia page, and it made sure to describe his family’s long history of investing and corporate takeovers.
Leah didn’t understand what most of that meant. She had a vague notion of what investing entailed, but how did one take over a whole corporation? My brain would probably melt trying to understand it. Leah could bake and decorate a wedding cake in an afternoon, but she wasn’t about to start analyzing Bloomberg and C-SPAN.
“I don’t want to talk about my appearance, though.” Sloan cornered Leah in the elevator, hand gripping the gold rail. Numbers slowly counted upward, but the only lurch Leah felt in her stomach was the one Sloan gave her with that glare. “I’d much rather talk about how beautiful you are.”
“Tha… thank… I’m wearing the negligee you gave me.” Compliments were too hard to bear right now. Leah would rather keep focus on what Sloan could be complimenting instead of eliciting more from her. “Do you want me to show you?”
Sloan could barely contain her smirk of accomplishment. “When we get to the room.” They were only two floors away from theirs. Sloan leaned down and muttered, though nobody was around to hear them, “Did you wear the other thing I asked you to?”
Nodding, Leah could hardly contain the excitement bubbling up her throat. “Thank you, by the way. It was very generous of you to send me that…”
Her attentions were soon distracted by the miniature remote Sloan pulled out of her jacket pocket. Most of the words and buttons were unreadable from where Leah stood, but she knew what that thumb hovering over the big read button meant.
On.
Leah thought the command the moment Sloan hit it. Tiny vibrations erupted from the pit of Leah’s loins and quickly expanded through her whole body. She grabbed the handrail behind her, eyes wide and thighs clamping together.
“I knew this would be fun as soon as I was in range of you again.” Sloan turned off the bullet vibe lodged within Leah’s body. The vibrations were not as quick to calm down as they had been to start up. “I hoped the battery worked, and I wouldn’t stand here looking like an incompetent movie villain.”
The elevator doors opened. Sloan was the first to step out, since Leah was still too overwhelmed to move from her spot.
What have I gotten myself into this time? Oh, now she was having that thought? Where the fuck was Leah’s conscience a few days ago, when this woman – whom she barely knew – sent her a box full of kinky shit?
“Don’t make me turn it back on prematurely,” Sloan called over her shoulder. “Let’s go inside and have a little chat. Just us girls!”
Leah stumbled out of the elevator before the doors could close on her face. Sloan was already sliding her keycard into her suite by the time Leah caught up to her.
It wasn’t as spacious as the hotel room from a week ago, but Leah didn’t see that as a detriment. It’s cozier. Sexier, right? She would never be more than a few feet away from Sloan, whose current perfume practically hooked its finger beneath Leah’s nose.
“Wine?” Sloan pulled the bottle out of its ice bucket and opened it as if she drank a bottle of wine every day. That level of dexterity made Leah cock her head and wonder how long it would take for those fingers to find other buttons to play with. “Or is it too early in the day for you to indulge?”
Leah shook her head. “If you’re having some, then so am I.”
“Excellent. “Have a seat on the couch. We have much to talk about.”
Leah sat on the corner of the couch. Should I take off my jacket? She wore nothing but the negligee and its accompanying underwear beneath it. To think, she had walked here in the cold weather! I was kept warm by thoughts of what was going to happen. Not that it stopped her sister from taking off her headphones and asking Leah where the hell she was going without anything to keep her legs warm. Leah had told her the gym, of all things!
As far as her family knew, she was going out with her friends again, and possibly staying the night at Melissa or Gina’s. I can’t believe I’m lying to my parents. At thirty. She needed her own place like she needed Sloan to come over and kiss her.
Sloan came over with two wineglasses,
but she didn’t kiss her guest. Leah accepted her glass and admired the way Sloan’s clothing moved against her body when she sat down next to Leah. Before they toasted to their fortuitous reunion, Leah said, “I love your perfume. What is it this time?”
“I have no idea. Something I picked up in Austria. I don’t know German, so for all I know it’s called Dog’s Ass.” Sloan sipped her wine and made a bitter face. “Goodness. This isn’t up to par at all.” She placed her glass on the coffee table in front of them. “Drink up all you want, though.”
Leah tried the wine. It was on the sweeter side, yes, but she hadn’t shared that she liked her wine to pack a punch. “What brings you to Portland this week?”
Those eyes locked upon Leah’s again. “You, of course.”
“Really? You came all the way back here on your weekend for me?”
“It was a good excuse to make a quick stop in California, but yes. You’re the primary reason I came back here.”
“Wow.” Leah giggled. It must have been the wine loosening her up already. “Here I thought I was a one-night stand. Or to preserve your good name in court.” She giggled again. That hadn’t meant to be a joke, yet there she was, making an utter fool of herself. She better put the wine down.
Sloan was kind enough to overlook Leah’s giddy behavior. “What can I say? I’m attracted to women who happen to want the kinds of things I offer them. You responded well to my little gift. How could I not pounce on the opportunity to strike up a relationship with someone so well matched with me?”
Leah pushed her cumbersome hair out of her face. It’s curling again. Damnit. She hadn’t spent half the morning straightening her hair only for it to bounce back with unruly curls again. She should’ve asked for a better straightening iron for her birthday! “Don’t suppose you could expand upon that, huh?”
“I don’t know how I could make it any clearer. I sent you my suggestion, you responded to it, and now here we are. Sitting on a couch, with you in the negligee I picked out and a vibrator up your pussy.” Sloan tapped the controller in her hands. “Or are you a good actress?”
