Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 3)

by Nikki Wild

  I stared at the address, sipping my whiskey, contemplating my next steps. Bruce would never have withheld evidence without a very, very good reason. His last journal entry mentioned me.

  But why?

  If anyone knew, it was Bruce, Rio and maybe Lacey Vance. I could go to Rio and asked, but Charlie was right. It was dangerous.

  And I had a wife and baby depending on me.

  I decided that I would go to Rio as a last resort. Lacey Vance had been very short with me, but that was before I knew she’d slept with Bruce. Maybe now that I had that information, I could use it as leverage to get a lot more information from her.

  I went back to bed, spooning Chloe and holding her close all night. My cock stirred, reminding me that too many hours had gone by since I’d made love to her. I’d put those needs on the back burner the last few days, and everything was simmering just below the surface. I thought about waking her up, but she was sleeping so peacefully, I just couldn’t do it.

  I ignored the pulsing between my legs and fell asleep, dreaming of my wife’s perfect body.

  Chloe

  I met Violet at the shop the next morning. All of the furnishings and supplies we’d picked out were in the process of being delivered and the place was crammed with boxes and containers. Violet had set up a desk in the corner and she was elbow deep in paperwork when I arrived.

  “I can’t believe all this,” I said, spinning around.

  “Everything’s going smoothly,” she said. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m good,” I said, placing my hand on my belly. I’d gotten used to the fact that when people now asked how I was doing, they meant me and the baby. We were a cohesive unit at this point. To remind me of that fact, she kicked me, hard.

  “I have some paint samples and logo designs I’d like you to look at,” she said.

  “Oh, I’d love to,” I said. We sat down together, spending the next few hours picking out paint and carpet and then she showed me the ideas the designer had come up with for the sign outside.

  I picked the prettiest one…a flour-de-lis trim on a lavender background with the word ‘Beauty’ inscribed in cursive, the edges of the letters curling around artistically.

  “I think that’s the best one, too,” Violet said. “Maybe you don’t need me after all.”

  “Are you kidding?” I asked. “I couldn’t get all this done without you. Look at this place! And it’s all moving so quickly.”

  “Well, once you’ve done it a few times, you move a little faster. You’re on a learning curve, that’s to be expected. Don’t sell yourself short. It’s mostly a matter of spending money and when you don’t have to worry about a budget, it makes things a lot easier.”

  I felt a twinge of guilt when she said that. I knew most people struggled for years to get to this point. It was true that Bear’s money had allowed me this incredible opportunity, probably way before I was truly ready. The baby had sped things up, or maybe his money had, or both, but either way, part of me felt bad for not paying my dues properly.

  I pushed it aside and flashed a grateful smile at Violet.

  “Thank you for all your help, you’ve been a blessing, Violet,” I said.

  “It’s my pleasure, Chloe,” she replied, walking me to the door. “How’s Bear doing?”

  “He’s okay,” I said. “Still getting over Bruce’s death, but I think he’s settling back into his routine.”

  “That’s good to hear,” she said. “Those two were close as brothers.”

  “I know,” I said. “Bruce was a wonderful man.”

  “He was,” she said. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”

  “Me, either,” I replied. “Did you know him well?”

  “We had a little fling many years ago,” she said.

  “Oh!” I replied. “I didn’t know…”

  “Not many people do,” she said. “But like I said, it was a long time ago. We didn’t see each other too often over the years, but when we did, we were friendly. Bruce was one of those guys that was impossible to be upset with. Everyone loved him. It’s such a shame he killed himself.”

  “I know,” I said. “Bear doesn’t really believe that, actually.”

  “Well, Bear would know,” she said. “Like I said, they were close as brothers…”

  I nodded, thinking about Bear’s investigation into Bruce’s death. I’d been worried about him tremendously, especially after he told me what happened at the cabin. I’d asked him to be careful, not to put himself at risk, but I knew he wouldn’t stop until he had the answers he was searching for. Violet’s observations only cemented that fact.

  “Violet, thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “My pleasure, sweetheart,” she said.

  I walked back out to the car, smiling at Max as he waited patiently. I slid into the backseat, my mind a million miles away as I thought of my amazing husband.

  I should be thankful that he was looking into Bruce’s death. He loved him so much and Bruce deserved Bear’s devotion. I vowed to stop worrying and do whatever I could to help him. I’d not even offered my help, not really. I kept wanting to find a way to help him feel better, to help him get over it, but maybe the only way ‘over’ it was to go right ‘through’ it, as they say.

  We’d not made love in days, and I knew it had to be because he was so distracted. Maybe once this was all over, things could return to normal.

  My ass twitched as I thought of what normal meant for us. My nipples hardened as I imagined the feel of his hands on me, heard the sharp slapping of skin on skin, the sound of Bear’s voice growling in my ear…

  ‘Good girl….Good girl….’

  Bear

  “Good morning, Sarah,” I said as I walked past my assistant’s desk on the way to my office.

  “Good morning, Mr. Dalton,” she smiled. “Sir, there’s a man here to see you. He doesn’t have an appointment and he asked to wait for you.”

  “Who is it?”

  “He says his name is Randy.”

  “I don’t know anyone named Randy…” I said, my voice trailing off.

  “He said he’s Mrs. Dalton’s father?”

  “Fuck,” I said, rolling my eyes. “He’s still here?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “He’s sitting outside of your door.”

  “Alright, I’ll see him for a few minutes,” I said, anger beginning to bubble up inside of me.

  I walked to my office and sure enough, there was Randy, fidgeting in his seat. He stood up when he saw me.

  “Hello,” I said, dryly. I was not in the mood to see him, but after the way he’d upset Chloe, I was almost glad he was here so I could firmly send him on his way. “Come in my office.”

  I walked inside, not bothering to shake his hand. He followed closely behind. I sat behind my desk and stared at him warily, resisting the urge to give in to my fantasies of punching him.

  “How can I help you?” I asked.

  “Chloe doesn’t want me in her life,” he said.

  “Can you blame her?” I asked.

  “No, of course not. But I was hoping you could convince her otherwise.”

  “How and why would I do that?”

  “Because I want to be a part of her life,” he insisted.

  “Do you really?” I asked, cocking my head. “Why now?”

  “I’m her father.”

  “No, you really aren’t, and it sounds to me like we’re having the same exact conversation you had with Chloe the other day. I don’t see the point of this. This has nothing to do with me.”

  “Actually, it does,” he said. “Because you’re the one with the money.”

  “Ah, just as I suspected,” I replied. “You want money.”

  “Yeah, I do,” he said. “It’s only fair.”

  “Fair?” I scoffed. “Are you mad? Get the fuck out of my office and stay away from us. I’m not giving you anything.”

  He stood up, removing an envelope from his jacket and throwing it
on my desk.

  I groaned.

  “What the fuck is this?” I asked.

  “Open it,” he insisted.

  “Fuck,” I shook my head, opening the envelope and pulling out its contents. “What is this?”

  I looked at the stack of photos and cringed.

  It was Matilda.

  Having sex.

  With him.

  They were very young, but it was obvious it was definitely them.

  I threw them upside down on the desk and shook my head.

  “I could have gone my whole life without seeing that.”

  “If you don’t give me what I want, I’m sending these to the New York Post. I think they’d love to have them, don’t you think?”

  “Why would anyone care?”

  “Because of you, of course. You’ve married the young daughter of your CFO and now pictures of her slutty mother surface. There’s a video tape, too, by the way. It’s a bit of a stretch, but if you think they wouldn’t publish them, you’re mistaken. It’d be such an embarrassment to Chloe, don’t you think? Not to mention your brand new mother-in-law.”

  “Wow, you really are a prick, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t care what you think of me.”

  “Of course you don’t,” I said, my anger boiling now. “What do you want, Randy?”

  “Not much,” he said.

  “How much?” I asked, my fists balling at my sides.

  “Two hundred thousand,” he said.

  I stood staring down at him, my eyes full of rage. Sometimes, money just causes problems. I knew if Chloe hadn’t married me, this scumbag never would have surfaced from whatever pit of hell he came out of. She’d been so upset by him, and I wasn’t about to let him near her again.

  This time, money could solve the problem it had created.

  “I’ll give you ten thousand and not a penny more.”

  He squinted and began to protest, but I shook my head.

  “Not a penny more,” I repeated.

  “Fine,” he said, shaking his head angrily.

  I opened my desk drawer and quickly wrote a check and handed it to him. His greedy eyes lit up like a goddamned Christmas tree, making me want to punch him even more. I walked around the desk and closed the distance between us.

  I grabbed his collar with my fist and pushed him against the wall.

  “You come anywhere near Chloe or Matilda again and I will fucking knock your head off, do you understand me?”

  “Understood,” he said, with a creepy smile. “Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Dalton.”

  “Fuck off,” I growled, pushing him away. “Get the fuck out.”

  He left without another word, the pictures still lying on my desk. I grabbed them, running them through the shredder under my desk, shaking my head.

  “Motherfucker,” I muttered, trying desperately to scrub the images from my memory.

  Five hours later, I sat in my car parked down the block from Rio’s apartment building in Harlem. I watched as several people streamed in and out, but none of them were Rio. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. Maybe I was wasting my time sitting here but I was still looking for clues.

  I was pretty certain that Rio had Bruce killed, or somehow forced him to kill himself, but I didn’t know why. If Bruce had done what he wanted, if he’d thrown the case, what was the point of killing him? And how in the world had he found him up at the cabin?

  Nobody was aware he was up there, as far as I knew.

  I’d asked Bruce on New Year’s Eve if he’d had any contact with anyone from his old job and he’d told me he hadn’t and I’d believed him. He didn’t have any reason to lie to me.

  I sat outside of Rio’s apartment for an hour and didn’t see a thing of interest to me.

  “This isn’t getting me anywhere,” I said to myself. I decided to try a different approach and started the car up, heading back towards the DA’s office.

  Lacey Vance was sitting at her desk when I walked in. Her receptionist recognized me right away, her face lighting up with a smile.

  Lacey wasn’t as happy to see me. I closed the door behind me and sat down across from her.

  “Mr. Dalton, how can I help you?”

  “Nice to see you again,” I said.

  “I’m very busy,” she said, tossing me an impatient look.

  “I understand,” I said. “I was hoping I could ask you a few more questions about Bruce.”

  “Of course,” she said, folding her hands in front of her.

  “Well, I’ve done a little digging on my end and I wanted to ask you again if you’d talked to Bruce, or perhaps seen him, after he left his position here.”

  “I already answered that. No.”

  “Right,” I said, nodding. “And you said you two were close?”

  “We were colleagues, Mr. Dalton, what are you getting at?”

  “You were more than colleagues, Mrs. Vance.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You were sleeping with him.”

  Her face paled and her eyes widened.

  “Mr. Dalton, I’m not sure why you think that, but I can assure you, I didn’t—.”

  “—I have his journals.”

  She stopped short, her mouth open as she stared back at me. She shot a glance at the door and lowered her voice.

  “That was a long time ago,” she whispered.

  “Was it?” I asked. “Sounded more like an on-again, off-again, repeating kind of thing to me.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I just want answers, Mrs. Vance.”

  “I don’t see what any of this has to do with Bruce’s death,” she said.

  “I don’t either. Not yet, anyway. But I’m pretty sure my friend wouldn’t have killed himself, and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it. In fact, I won’t stop until I do. At this point, I’m looking for more information about Bruce’s last case. You worked on it with him. Do you know why Santiago got off with such a light sentence?”

  She paused, squinting her eyes at me.

  “No,” she said.

  “Do you know anything about missing evidence?” I asked.

  “No, Mr. Dalton, I have no information to offer you. I don’t know what happened. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”

  Her face was flushed, a hot, pink blush rising in her cheeks. I glanced down at her hands and saw her fingers trembling as she picked up her pen.

  I nodded and rose to my feet.

  “That’s alright, Mrs. Vance. I’ll keep digging.”

  I walked out, knowing I’d left her rattled and even more sure that I was on the right track.

  Chloe

  On my way home, I’d stopped at a gorgeous French lingerie store and bought a sexy new outfit to surprise Bear with. He’d been so distracted lately and I hoped it would cheer him up and take him out of his head for a little while.

  The negligee I’d picked out was made from delicate red French lace. It plunged to a deep V in the front and back, and had a tiny little skirt of black lace sewn around the hips.

  I loved it and as soon as I tried it on, I knew it was perfect. My belly kept growing more and more every day and even though I wasn’t showing so much that I couldn’t have passed it off as the effects of consuming a very large meal, it was still very noticeable to me. I didn’t mind it one bit, though.

  I loved my new breasts, my new hips, and by the way Bear’s hands seem to always be resting on them, I was pretty sure he was enjoying them, too.

  Hopefully, tonight, we could really reconnect. We needed it so badly. We’d both been working hard and his head was in the clouds and not in a good way, definitely in a very stressful way. We both needed to recharge and I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.

  I waited for him in the dungeon room, all dressed up in my new outfit. I craved a big glass of wine to help shake my nerves, but since that was out of the questions, I’d done what I could with a cup of chamomile tea before I
settled in there. I walked around the room while I was waiting, memories flooding over me.

  I remembered the first time I’d seen this room, how nervous and freaked out and excited I was. When he’d caught me snooping, I thought that was the end of it all. But it was only the beginning.

  My fingers trailed over the whips on the wall, a faint smile spreading across my face as I remembered the feel of them sliding across my skin, smacking against my ass, my thighs, my pussy…

  And then I remembered that awful night I’d told him about my dinner with Levi. It seemed like so long ago and all that pain was now just a very distant memory. So much had changed. After finding out I was pregnant, I’d called Levi a few days later and politely thanked him for his help but told him I was no longer interested in pursuing the job at Armani. Bear had insisted that wasn’t necessary, all the while apologizing for his behavior, but I’d done it out of respect.

  I knew he felt bad about everything, still to this day. I’d forgiven him quickly and I was glad I had. Now, with the way he was being so sweet and gentle with me, I knew I’d made the right decision. I knew at the time that I was running the risk of him doing it again, but as I’d hoped, he’d respected my boundaries immensely.

  I knew without a doubt I’d done the right thing.

  I picked up a leather strap and ran my fingers through it, relishing the feel and the smell of the leather. I wrapped it around my hand, clutching it firmly and slapping it against the bed. The sound sent chills down my spine, ending with a tiny spark of electricity lighting up my clit.

  I was so hungry for Bear’s touch at this point. When I heard the front door open, my heart sped up.

  I laid down on the bed to wait for him.

  Lying on my side, I propped myself up on my elbow and positioned myself into what I hoped was a seductive pose and not a comical one.

  If this outfit didn’t get him to fuck me, then nothing would….

  Bear

  I made my way home with a guilty heart.

  I never should have paid off Randy. I should have gone to Chloe and Matilda first and let them decide to how to handle it. They were tough, they could handle it just fine on their own. If they wanted to pay him off, then I’d happily oblige.