by Stefani, Z.
“Steffi who?”
“Steffi Zell, she’s one of NY’s hottest designers. Well, her and her twin sister Stevie.”
“Well, whether designer gown or a trash bag, you’d still be the prettiest girl around.” His southern drawl crept down her back like warm molasses.
“Why, thank you, Ronnie,” she purred as she stepped closer to him.
“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Lila exclaimed as she walked over to Juliette. “Come with me.”
“What’s going on?” Juliette asked, irritated by the interruption.
“It’s urgent; I’ll tell you when we get there.”
“Bye.” Juliette smiled at Ronnie before she was whisked away.
“What’s wrong?” Juliette asked.
“Nothing, I saved you from having to speak to that simpleton a moment longer,” Lila cackled.
“Who, Ronnie?”
“First name basis now?” Lila raised her thin eyebrow.
“Ronnie’s not a simpleton, he’s actually quite sweet,” Juliette defended him.
“Sweet? Ronnie? You’re joking, right?” Lila looked at Juliette as if she were daft.
“Well—“
“Forget about him; let’s go for coffee,” Lila finished.
Juliette narrowed her eyes for a moment before she composed herself. Lila was protesting a bit too much for it to be heartfelt advice.
***
Everyone was gone for the night except Ian and Gloria. Ian was busy working on his case, and Gloria was busy working on Ian. She walked into his office and put her hands on her hips.
“Do you ever rest? You’re going to work yourself into an early grave,” Gloria scolded him.
“What time is it?”
“It’s time for you to take a break from work and have a good time.”
“I’ll be done soon.”
“No, you’re done now,” she grabbed his hand, “come with me; I know this great little place that has an excellent selection of fried foods and top-shelf liquor.”
“Where?”
“The club that’s waiting for us to walk through its doors.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Come have a drink and get your mind off things.”
“No, I really should finish this.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer, now come on,” she insisted, and Ian couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face.
“All right, maybe just a drink.” He wrapped his arm around her as they headed out of his office.
She smiled knowingly. “Yes, just one drink.”
They were holding each other as they left his office. Gloria looked up to see Juliette standing by her desk. They quickly let go of each other and silently walked to the elevators.
“Damn,” Ian hissed once he was inside.
“Don’t worry, she won’t say anything.”
“How can you be certain?”
“I’ll talk to her.”
***
Julian was stewing over the situation with Heaven and Baker. At lunch, he was unusually quiet; he was polite but very distant. He didn’t say more than five words to Heaven for the rest of the day. She understood what was bothering him, but there was nothing she could do.
On the car ride home, he was just as silent. It wasn’t until they were home and in their room that he finally spoke to her.
She was in her closet removing her suit. He grabbed a bottle of liquor and walked to her closet, went in and sat on the bench.
“My father said he tried everything.” He opened the bottle of cognac. “Against my better judgment, I’m going to allow you to help with this case.”
“Why, thank you for giving me permission, sir,” she scoffed sarcastically as she unbuttoned her shirt.
“Watch that mouth,” he warned her, obviously not in the mood for sarcasm. He reached out and swatted her behind.
She tossed her shirt at him. “You watch my mouth.”
“If you keep talking to me like that, I’ll do more than watch your mouth—I’ll violate it,” he threatened as he watched her unzip her skirt.
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Careful.’ He raised his brows as his pale eyes sparked.
She could tell by the look in his eyes and his cocky attitude that he would do more than violate her. He was in a very strange mood indeed.
Julian took a long drink from the bottle before he continued, “And don’t forget, I’ll be keeping a very close watch on you.”
“I know,” she said with a grin as she slid off her skirt.
“There are going to be some rules,” he added as he watched her remove her stockings.
“Rules?”
“Yes. Rule number one, Ayden King is to be in the room with the two of you at all times. I don’t want you alone with Baker under any circumstances. I don’t trust him, and if I catch him looking at your ass or your tits again, I’ll break his fucking nose.”
“I highly doubt he’s looking at my butt or my breasts,” she disagreed.
“What’s happened to you? You’re usually a pro at spotting guys trying to hit on you. You knew every time my eyes strayed to your breasts.” He leaned over and slid his finger under the hem of her panties.
“That’s different. I don’t pay attention to Mr. Baker; he could scream fire and I probably wouldn’t notice. But, I always paid attention to you. I always keep a close eye on my enemies,” she said honestly.
“And that’s another thing; I don’t want you to have any type of relationship with him. Not as a friend, and not as an enemy. I don’t even want you arguing with him. You keep it minimal. I know what arguing with you can do to a man.” He grabbed the front of her bra and pulled her closer to him. She stood between his knees, bending at the waist to accommodate him as he pulled her closer.
His kiss was soft; he kissed her as if it were the first time their lips ever touched. The gentleness of the kiss contradicted the violent way he yanked the front of her bra apart. She tried to stand up, but he wouldn’t allow it. She tried to pull her head back and he bit her lip, keeping her still.
Julian slipped her bra down her shoulders and then grabbed her wrists. He held them behind her back as he quickly bound the material around them. He continued to kiss her as he slid his hands up her arms; he lightly grazed his nails across her shoulders, stopping an inch from her breasts. He skimmed the tips of his fingers over the tips of her breasts, forcing her sigh into his mouth.
She no longer cared that she was bent in an awkward fashion. The soft spell he was weaving over her body was hypnotizing her. She was ready to melt into him as his fingertips and mouth worked their magic. Soft clouds of confusion enveloped her, and just when she was ready to give in, Julian set the clouds aflame with the twitch of his fingers.
He gripped her nipples tightly, forcing her to cry out. He broke the kiss to look into her eyes.
“You don’t argue with him, you don’t smile at him, and you’d better not flirt,” he warned her.
“I don’t flirt,” Heaven frowned; she had never flirted in her life.
“You better not let him touch you,” he advised her, his eyes laced with hostility.
“I won’t,” she cried, trying to keep still lest he rip her nipples off.
“And you better follow every rule,” he cautioned. When she didn’t answer, he applied a little more pressure to her nipples.
“All right, I’ll follow your rules. Again.”
“Be careful, Princess; if this backfires, it’s going to turn out really bad,” he admitted. He softened his grip on her breasts, and she exhaled.
“It won’t…you’ll see.” She knew that she would have to handle this situation very carefully. Julian was a ticking time bomb, and she knew it wouldn’t take much to set him off.
“It better not.” He released her nipples and began to gently kiss them as if trying to apologize with his lips. He slid his hands into her panties and pulled them off, then sat back to a
ppreciate her for a moment. “I don’t know what I would do.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about. Mr. Baker is a terrible lawyer; there is nothing sexy about that. Besides…he’s not you…so why would I want him to touch me?” Only he knew what she liked; only he could set her body on fire, and only he could make her beg for more.
Julian pulled her down to his lap. He bent his head and began softly kissing the tips of her breasts. She leaned her head and arched her back as he sucked the tip deep into his mouth, then frowned when he pulled back to look at her.
“And don’t you ever forget that,” his tone was serious.
“I can’t forget that,” she answered as she grabbed his hand and put it between her legs.
The Opportunist
The tension at the prison was escalating. Even though Gavin kept quiet and managed to stay far away from the brewing war, he had all intentions of using it to his advantage. At this point, he was a model prisoner, he followed the rules, he never gave the officers trouble, and he never fought with the other prisoners.
Until now.
He finally saw his opportunity, and he took it. A well-known prisoner was arguing with one of the guards. However, the argument was only a distraction from the inmate’s real plan. He’d overheard the prisoners making plans to kill that particular guard. While the lone guard argued with the prisoner, another prisoner hid in the shadows with a shank. The other prisoner was well-hidden—the guard would never see him coming.
Gavin was able to warn the guard in time. He sprinted over to the guards’ station to get help. The guard took down the prisoner while calling for back-up. Three other officers raced to his aid and managed to secure both prisoners. While the prisoners were being led out, they vowed revenge on Gavin.
Gavin managed to hide his smile, and instead produced false tears. He expressed his fear to the guards, and they were more than happy to make sure that he was safe. After all, he had saved the life of their fellow guard. To them, he was a criminal still, but a hero nonetheless.
Now Gavin had what he needed to aid in his plan. The guards slacked on his security, and even gave him special privileges. He could move about without their watchful eye trained on him. Due to the threats from the other prisoners, Gavin was also allowed to take showers and have yard time by himself. It all played into his plan, and under the circumstances, he couldn’t be happier.
***
It was lights out. The prison was dark, except for the occasional flash from the flashlights of the guards. Gavin Grant sat in his cell, his hands under the covers. He had learned how to make a weapon out of a toothbrush, and he was excited to work on it; he’d already begun melting and forming the plastic. Now he needed to file it down to a sharp point. He kept his hands under the covers so the guards wouldn’t see him. The guards would never suspect him of trying to escape; he was already a model prisoner, and they had bigger threats to keep their eyes on.
He was only able to work for small periods each night. He didn’t care how long it took; he had plenty of time. Not to mention the fact that Julian and Heaven were not going anywhere. They would be there when he was ready for them. They would have no chance this time. By the time they found out he’d escaped, he would already be inside their house waiting for them.
Doomsday
It was doomsday, and Julian rose from the bed accordingly. He was in a foul mood and not looking forward to the day’s events. Heaven may not notice Clive’s advances, but he did—he noticed every move Clive made. He watched Heaven fix her suit before the full-length mirror, and walked up to stand behind her.
“Rule number two, no more sexy suits while you’re working with Baker.”
“I don’t even wear sexy suits,” she shot back.
“Any suit that is tailored to fit that body is going to appear sexy.” He slid his hand down her curves to emphasize his point.
“Would you prefer that I go back to the oversized suits?” she asked sarcastically.
“Yes, actually I would,” he answered in a serious tone.
“I was kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you hated those suits.” She was well aware of the irony of the situation. She remembered all the times that she had the same argument with Julian about the oversized suits.
“I did, when they prevented me from seeing you. Now that I know exactly what’s under those suits—I will protect my prize from prying eyes. I love those big suits; they prevent everyone from seeing what lies beneath. It’s almost like a full-body, cloth-woven, chastity belt.”
“I’m not wearing them; I’m done with those baggy suits.” She hated the thought of going back to the oversized, ill-fitting suits. They represented a way of life that she no longer wanted. She was tired of hiding, tired of denying herself, and just tired of keeping up with her own ridiculous demands. Things were different now, and she refused to regress. She had falsely believed that those suits had empowered her, but she was wrong. She knew now that she had been hiding behind them; in her mission to be empowered, she had actually grown weak.
For the first time in her life, she was proud of her assets and not ashamed of her body. She no longer thought of them as objects that men paid high prices to fondle. Now when she got dressed, the illicit garb she’d witnessed growing up in the brothel no longer entered her mind or guided her choices.
“Well, you’re not wearing the sexy ones either.”
She raised her chin in defiance. “I will if I want to.”
“Why do you want to wear them? Are you trying to show off for Clive?”
“I can’t believe you just asked me that,” she looked at him as if he were crazy for even suggesting it.
“Do you have any idea what I would do to you if you were trying to dress sexy for Clive?” he said in a deadly tone, but she didn’t answer. “Do you?”
“I think so,” she finally admitted.
“Then why do you insist on wearing them?”
“Almost every woman at the firm wears suits that fit like this. Some of those secretaries wear skirts hiked up to their vaginas.”
“I don’t care about any of them. I only care about you and what you wear."
“I’ll look like an ugly, gaudy, bag lady in comparison.” Although she had never cared about things like that before, she was now consumed with the thought. She didn’t want to walk around looking tacky while the rest of the women flaunted their assets. She couldn’t forget that some of those women had gone out of their way to try to impress Julian.
“You couldn’t look ugly if you tried. Even if you wore a bag, you’d outshine them all.”
“I like the way that you look at me when I dress like this,” she said candidly.
“I look at you like that no matter what you wear. You could be covered in dirt while wrapped in aluminum foil, and my cock would still get hard. You could wear hundreds of yards of fabric that covered every inch of your body, and I would become fixated on tearing it off.”
“We need to compromise. I’m not wearing those suits again, but I won’t wear anything too formfitting either. However, if I do this, you have to bow to your knees and convince me how gorgeous I look in my ill-fitting suit. Every single morning before we go to work.”
“Only if I can peel that suit off after I do it.”
She raised her chin. “That will depend on how convincing you are.”
“It’s a deal. I’m giving you a credit card, and I want you to order a whole new wardrobe. Nothing tight and nothing provocative, I want every inch of your body covered. Buy a lot of turtlenecks.”
“Turtlenecks?” she raised her brows in disbelief.
“Yes.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not wearing turtlenecks.” She wasn’t thrilled about wearing those horrible suits again, but perversely satisfied by his reaction. She preferred that he was jealous instead of trying to share her. However, turtlenecks were ou
t of the question.
“Until you’re done helping Baker—you’re wearing them. Don’t make a potentially lethal situation any worse.” He kissed her shoulder, “Now go and change.”
“Now? We’ll be late for work.”
“If you keep questioning me, I’ll rip that suit off,” he threatened her with a wolfish smile that she couldn’t resist.
