Provocative Territory

by Altonya Washington

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming by?” Linda scolded.

  “Spur of the moment. I didn’t stop by to take you away from anything.”

  Linda flushed slightly beneath her light honey-colored complexion. “Now, Eli, you know you’re free to take me away from anything—anytime you want to.” She looked over her shoulder at the three female coworkers who watched Elias with blatant lust and Linda with sheer venom.

  Unperturbed, Linda sent them saucy winks and strolled off with the man they drooled over.

  “Get you a drink?” she offered when they were closed inside the office.

  “I’m good.” Eli sat on the edge of Linda’s glass desk. “I want to know how Mr. Cleve’s doing.”

  “That’s right—the deal.” Linda rested a hand across the open neckline of her shirt. “I’m so sorry that all fell through. He’s been very tense lately. I don’t think anyone else has really noticed it yet with all the shake-ups we’ve been having on the real estate end. They’ve been...unsettling.”

  “Unsettling?” Eli probed.

  Linda bit her lip and sat down in a chair before her desk.

  “He didn’t sound like himself when we talked on the phone.”

  Linda blinked a few times and then buried her head as though she were contemplating. Finally, she locked gazes with Elias. “It’s not good. Some of our biggest mortgage loans have fallen through and others are on the teetering edge.”

  “Times are hard.” Eli shrugged, playing devil’s advocate.

  Linda shook her head forebodingly. “That’s not what this is.”

  “Well, everyone knows some of Mr. Cleve’s clients don’t make their money in the most ordinary ways.”

  “Humph, ordinary...right...” Linda twisted the thumb ring she wore. “Those ordinary clients are being affected too—all of our highest-tiered customers, the ones who truly keep the bank afloat are being affected.”

  Eli’s brow furrowed. “Is it nationwide?”

  “Not yet.” Linda swallowed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear our Philly office is being targeted exclusively.”

  “What’s Mr. Cleve sayin’ about this?” Eli watched Linda leave the chair, massaging her neck as she paced the length of the windows lining the back wall.

  “He hasn’t said much of anything. Humph, maybe I’m overreacting. Like I said, it’s only the Philly offices being affected. Maybe Cleveland knows this is just a hiccup and nothing to worry about.”

  “Is he around?” Eli asked.

  “Taking a long lunch.” Linda put a refreshing smile in place. “You’re welcome to wait.”

  Eli glanced at his watch. “Got an appointment.” He went to hug Linda. “Tell him I came by, all right?”

  * * *

  When Elias returned to his office, Desmond was there watching with a broad grin.

  “Very nice.”

  Eli tilted his head, smiling curiously. “Are you gonna make me guess?”

  “Your two o’clock.”

  “She’s here?” Elias didn’t really require a response as he looked toward his closed office door.

  “I didn’t think you’d mind if I let her wait inside.”

  “Take the rest of the day, Des,” Elias spoke over his shoulder.

  “You’re sure? You don’t need me to take notes or anything?”

  Elias stopped when his hand was on the door handle. He gave Desmond the benefit of his bright gaze and sly grin before heading on into the office.

  * * *

  He was able to walk in unnoticed and found Clarissa—to his delight—bending over his desk as she inspected the photographs he kept of his mother along a shelf.

  Elias closed the door without making a sound and leaned back next to it. There, he worked his thumb into his palm while studying her dress and sensually shaped legs.

  His vivid blue-green stare sketched repeated outlines of her bottom. He drove his thumb a little deeper into his palm, attempting to diminish the ache stemming from a desire to cradle the enticing roundness in his hands—again.

  He cleared his throat over a groan and watched her straighten quickly and whirl around to him. The moment she started to explain herself, he moved toward her.

  Clarissa blinked and quieted when Elias didn’t seem to be of a mind to stop. Not until she was in his arms for the second time that day. He lifted her just a fraction to place her atop his desk and then he cupped her face to deepen their kiss.

  Her whimpering and the desperate lunges of her tongue against his drove Elias out of his mind in a matter of seconds.

  Clarissa had no time to conjure refusals or second thoughts. She had thought of little else outside of him doing this again. Someplace deep, guilt stirred. Pleasure fevered her brain as opposed to the misery she should have felt on the eve of burying the woman who’d practically raised her.

  Yes, continued pleasure fevered her brain and her body while Elias executed his seductive assault. His hands roamed her at will, weighing and squeezing her breasts until they bulged from the lacy bra cups covering them.

  The fondling moved to her hips and, upon squeezing her there, Eli lifted Clarissa into his broad solid frame. She, in turn, squeezed his hips between her thighs.

  “Clarissa...”

  “Hmm...?” Her response was muffled when he kissed her again.

  “We’re supposed to be working,” he spoke amid caressing her tongue with his.

  “So? Why did we leave your desk, then?” She smiled when he laughed.

  Chapter 7

  “Didn’t think you’d keep our meeting after this morning,” Elias said when he and Clarissa were sharing a sofa. A stack of files sat between them.

  “You already think the worst of me,” she sang the words while flipping through a folder. “No sense in being a no-show to our meeting and digging myself into a deeper hole.”

  Elias smiled but didn’t look away from the folder he studied, either. “I shouldn’t have done that this morning.”

  “Mmm...but you won’t apologize for it?” she guessed.

  “Did you enjoy it?”

  Thrown by the question, Clarissa’s folder slipped from her hands. Lips parted in surprise, she looked over at him.

  Elias didn’t return her stare. “Did you?” he asked.

  She bit her lip momentarily and then nodded once. “Yes.”

  Eli smiled. “Then, no, I won’t apologize for it.”

  Clarissa leaned over to grab the folder from where it’d fallen. With all the paperwork clipped inside, there were no loose papers to collect. She laid the folder open across her lap again and laughed. “Everything my aunt had goin’ on looks like Greek to me.”

  “You shouldn’t be looking at it anyway, not with everything you have on your plate. When’s the funeral?”

  “Tomorrow.” Clarissa pressed her lips together.

  “Go home.” He rested his arms along the back of the sofa. “This’ll keep and look a lot better to you later.”

  Clarissa’s laughter held more humor that time. She closed the folder and stood. Elias followed her every move. He took his time to indulge in a slow, sea-blue scan of her body. He relished the way she smoothed her hands across her hips, bottom and thighs. All the while, he wondered if she did it out of habit, praying to God that she did.

  “She left me everything.”

  Elias’s focus was riveted on her words then. Sensing her tension, he tried to gauge her expression.

  “Are congrats in order?” he teased, hoping to coax a smile.

  Clarissa obliged, but the gesture was only faintly noticeable. “I don’t have a clue about half of what my aunt’s business involved. I was in charge of recruiting dancers for her clubs. I scouted other clubs, some of the girls I approached. Most approa
ched me....”

  Elias set aside the paperwork he’d been reviewing, becoming quickly enthralled by the extent of Clarissa’s duties.

  “That’s a pretty impressive list of responsibilities for strippers—sorry if that sounds harsh,” he winced.

  “It’s true—my duties were very extensive and probably a bit over-the-top given the nature of the business. But my aunt wasn’t the heartless home-wrecker everybody thought. The girls who worked the clubs were more than dancers to her. Aunt Jaz believed they could all be more, and it was my job to see that they had those opportunities.”

  “Sounds like your aunt trusted you with the most important resource of her business.”

  “Unfortunately it was the only part.”

  “Clarissa?” Eli braced his elbows to his knees and let concern radiate from his voice and expression. “You want to talk about it?”

  “I wouldn’t know where to start.” She massaged her neck with both hands. “I know something was bothering her but I—I was too late to find out what it was.”

  “It’s never too late, babe.”

  “How can you say that?” Temper flared in Clarissa’s brown eyes. “She’s gone. The day I met you, I was on my way to discuss all this with her and then she—” She gasped, turning her back on Elias then. She braced her hands atop his desk and bowed her head in a show of defeat.

  Eli went to her. Speaking soft words of reassurance, he smoothed his fingers over her bare nape.

  “I hope you haven’t been blaming yourself for what happened to your aunt.”

  “I know it’s stupid.” She closed her eyes as his massage worked its magic. “But I’m finding it hard not to do just that. Eli, she—she sounded so strange on the phone that day.”

  “Has anyone at the club said anything that would shed light?”

  Weariness commanded the slow shake of Clarissa’s head.

  “Hey.” Elias pulled her into a hug.

  The gesture stirred emotions for Clarissa which were a far cry from consoling. She inhaled deeply of the cologne clinging to his skin and clothing.

  Eli allowed his hands free rein over the body they’d come to crave. Moments later, he was kissing her as if famished for the taste of her.

  Moments before her thoughts blurred into the pleasure-scape roused by his touch, she experienced a moment of clarity. She understood what it was that drew her to him. Granted, it was only one of the things but it was by far among the most potent.

  Elias Joss had the power to make her forget it all. Her angst regarding the business, guilt over the last moments of Jazmina’s life, regrets over the way she’d handled her own life... In his arms, all that registered was the desire to please and be pleasured.

  Elias’s state of mind wasn’t quite as eased. It was true that he forgot everything when Clarissa was near. Once he put his hands on her...all else became unimportant. It was of course a blissful existence. If only he could shake the way he felt his actions were running parallel to his father’s. Had Evan Joss experienced the same weakness? Did that explain why he was once ready to cast aside his family for another woman?

  And why the hell was he thinking of that at all? Eli rarely wasted time on the memory of his father. Yet when weakness—a thing he had an absolute intolerance for—was the topic, he couldn’t help but bring the man to mind. It was those times in which he recalled and dreaded any similarities sharing Evan Joss’s blood may have planted.

  A chiming sound lilted and Clarissa stiffened. She was slammed to reality as reason and her cellphone tugged her back.

  The kiss ended, but Elias didn’t release her. Instead, he took the time to fix the smudge of lipstick at her well-kissed mouth. He brushed his mouth across her cheek and stepped away to let her handle the call.

  Clarissa took her time about moving. She felt annoyance stir when the ringing chimes resurfaced once the answering service had taken care of the previous call. Whatever it was had to be important, but Clarissa still frowned at the sight of Rayelle’s name on the faceplate.

  The second call met the same fate as the first, going right to voice mail. Then, there was knocking at the office door.

  “Yeah?” Eli called watching Linus stick his head inside the room.

  Clarissa felt the phone vibrate again. That time it was a cryptic text from Ray:

  Found something—call me!

  “Sorry, man, Des wasn’t at his desk—” Linus gave a start at finding Clarissa there. “Well, hey!” Linus forgot his partner for the moment and went to welcome Eli’s guest.

  “The architects are finally satisfied with all the details. They’ll be getting started in a month,” Linus announced after hugging Clarissa. “They’re gonna want to go over it all one more time in case there are any questions. Maybe we can do a dinner or something?” He turned to Elias. “That is, if it’s okay with your go-to guy here?”

  Eli shrugged, more than a little peeved over Linus’s intrusion.

  Clarissa smiled. “I can wait for Eli to give me the details, but it sounds fine with me. I, um—” she gave her cell a shake “—I really need to go, Eli. I’m sorry, um, I’ll call?”

  He nodded. “Sounds good.” His rich voice was as steady as his gaze. When the door closed behind Clarissa, his soft expression hardened.

  “Eli, man—”

  “Save it.”

  The warning didn’t stop Linus from uttering a full-bodied chuckle.

  * * *

  “What is it?” Clarissa frowned over the open book lying flat on the coffee table in Rayelle’s office at Jazzy B’s.

  Ray frowned down at the book, as well. “At first glance, it looks like a list of clients who booked VIP rooms for private dances.”

  “And on second glance?”

  “On second glance, it doesn’t look so good, since money’s changed hands.” Ray drew her finger along a row of numbers headed by a dollar sign.

  Clarissa massaged the bridge of her nose. “Ray, please don’t tell me this looks like prostitution money.”

  “I don’t know what it is, Clay. ’Specially since I don’t know who this third party is.” She tapped the column on the other side of the dancers’ stage names. “For every one of these clients’ names, there’s an amount and then a dancer and then an alphanumeric code. I’m guessing that’s who the real money’s going to.”

  “But money for what? Maybe that’s what the alphanumeric entries indicate, you think?”

  Ray shrugged. “Given these clients, I’m willin’ to bet there’s a good chance it’s a shady element at work here.” Ray straightened when she saw Clarissa’s frown. “Clients listed next to the dancers’ names are alleged drug dealers, Clay.”

  “Crap...” Clarissa massaged a sudden throb near her temple. “Do you think these girls are involved?”

  Ray tugged a lock of hair behind her ear. “Take a look at those amounts. Would you still dance if you had gotten a payday like that? Maybe the book is set up this way to make it look like some kind of prostitution deal—throw off whoever finds it.”

  “And how did you find it?”

  “It was in all those papers of Miss Jaz’s. From the crates I still need to bring out to the house.”

  Clarissa chewed her thumbnail. “Maybe we should talk to Waymon.”

  “I think we should wait ’til we know if this is really part of something foul.”

  Massaging her temples again, Clarissa tried to ward off the voice that told her it surely was.

  “This is the last thing I need today.”

  Ray groaned and flopped back on the sofa. “Sorry, Clay.”

  “No, it’s not anything you did. This is all on me.”

  “Care to dish?” Ray tucked her feet beneath her on the sofa.

  Mussing her short hair in frustration, Clarissa displayed a
quick frown. “Forget I said anything. I’ve been weird since my meeting with Elias.”

  Rayelle smiled and Clarissa rolled her eyes. She made quick work of telling her friend what happened between her and the construction entrepreneur and what didn’t happen: business.

  “That’s what we were there for.” Clarissa followed Ray’s example and tucked her feet beneath her where she claimed the opposite side of the sofa.

  “And why are you raking yourself over hot coals about this?”

  “Ray, please, I look just like the woman his father almost left his mother for.”

  “I’m sure you’ve noticed that Elias Joss is a big enough boy not to have daddy issues.”

  Clarissa drew up her knees and propped her chin against them. “Whatever happened then really traumatized him, Ray.”

  “You’re afraid it’ll affect your relationship.”

  “Relationship?” Clarissa laughed. “We’re far from having one of those, girl.”

  “Mmm...” Ray studied the stitching along the sofa’s arm. “Do you want that?”

  “Ray...I barely know him.”

  “And he’s kissed you how many times?”

  Clarissa averted her gaze. “Twice.”

  “And for how long?”

  “Stop. I get your point.”

  “So? Would you like a relationship with him?”

  “I don’t even know what that is.” Clarissa’s forlorn response was followed by a weighty sigh.

  Rayelle smiled empathetically. “So I guess the real question is, are you ready to find out?”

  * * *

  The overcast day was a fitting accompaniment for the event about to take place. Despite the promise of rain, Clarissa decided on a graveside service for Jazmina. It was a good thing she did, for it seemed that half of Philadelphia turned out for the going home of a woman who was supposedly a pariah.

  Clarissa remained stoic on the outside even though her soul was in turmoil.

  Too soon...too soon... She kept chanting the phrase in her head while the minister eulogized her aunt. It was unfair, she thought. She felt cheated out of the time she was supposed to have. She and Jaz spent so much time working, still there was much left unsaid.