by Kells, India
For a split second, Isabel could have made a parallel to her earlier kiss with Jamison, but her body’s reaction was quite different. Totally different. She melted into his embrace, fought his tongue with hers, and gripped him with the same fierce ferocity that he showed her.
Right at that moment, she discovered a new side to Kai. When she pushed away, fearing that Shelby might walk in on them, his hand twisted in her hair, holding her in place with painful force. The man she knew, or believed she had known, had been replaced by someone barely containing his anger and fury.
“Don’t allow him to kiss you ever again, do you understand?”
His voice was low and harsh, full of menace. Where had the Kai she knew gone? “You know that’s part of the plan. I need to get close to him, even if I would rather not.”
Again, he cut her off with his demanding mouth. His lips bruised and bit, his short beard chaffed her cheeks and cleavage when he descended lower.
His hands went to her skirt and pushed it up over her hips and before she could draw a breath, he tore at the scrap of lace covering her sex. Isabel couldn’t do anything but be aroused by this man, but at the same time, it was like she had a completely different man before her, a stranger with a streak of danger. When he grabbed her blond hair, which was styled in an artful twist, she tried to get free from his grasp.
“Kai, please, I need to stay presentable. No one can know what we are doing. If you can’t do that, you need to stop.”
The hiss coming from him accelerated the panic inside her. “I want them to know that you belong to me. That way he won’t put his hands or filthy mouth on you again.” To prove a point, he took her mouth again and grabbed her behind her thighs so she naturally circled his waist. He moved fast and dropped her on the sofa.
With the air knocked out of her, Kai didn’t give her time to recover and plunged between her legs. When his tongue first licked her, Isabel thought she would orgasm on the spot. She wasn’t entirely wrong. There was no finesse or tenderness in him when he latched onto her clit. The suction bordered on pain, but pleasure overwhelmed her so quickly, she could only close her throat to prevent her cry of ecstasy from coming out and alerting the entire office to what was going on.
Kai pushed his pants down, his erection thick and angry looking when he took it in his hand and stroked himself a few times before pushing it deep inside her quaking core.
Isabel clawed at anything she could, the sofa and him, just to have an anchor in the storm he was creating for her.
“Show me your breasts before I rip that shirt off your body.”
At his command, her fingers fumbled over the tiny buttons until she finally bared herself to him.
Still clad in her delicate lace bra, Kai pulled one breast over the cup before torturing the nipple. Isabel wanted to touch him too, but as soon as she extended her hands, he caught her wrists and held them beside her body. In this position, the force with which he pushed inside her robbed her of her sanity. With one of his knees on the sofa, and her legs spread and up, the angle was so perfect, her body contorted into a second orgasm faster than she could comprehend it.
Lost in a surge of hormones and surrounded by the smell of sex and their sweaty bodies, Isabel thought he would climax himself, but once more he changed tactic and descended between her thighs again. So sensitive, Isabel tried to push him away, but he was having none of it.
Although slightly gentler than before, his mouth started working her again with the same goal. One she very much hoped he would succeed in.
“Kai, please, it’s too much. You have to stop.”
His tongue both soothed and stung, stimulated the trembling flesh in pleasurable pain. He didn’t acknowledge her plea, and simply continued his mission. Her hands fisted in his long hair, messing his ponytail, pulling him closer and pushing him away at the same time.
Pierced with an electric current, her body was on sensation overload when Kai pushed two fingers inside her and clearly challenged her to surrender to him one final time.
“Kai, I won’t be able to do it, please.” Despite her assertion, the familiar coil of heat deep inside her belly tightened and spread to her spine, making her doubt her own declaration.
Looking down at the man between her shaking legs, and the wanton image of them, her desire for him linked with something much deeper and was enough to make her fly once more. But it was his piercing gaze and the low hum of appreciation coming from his lips plastered against her sex that burst that surprising dam of pleasure inside her.
Once more, he pushed his cock inside her and this time, it was with the clear intent of achieving his own orgasm. Her body coursing with small pleasurable aftershocks, she watched him as his body started to tense, and he came inside her. She would never tire of seeing him entranced in a climax like that. The power and strength of the man was a side of him she’d forgotten too easily, and she knew that this particular act was a reminder of it.
Deeply embedded inside her, his muscled arms straining on both sides of her, it took several heartbeats for the harshness on his face to dissolve and for the Kai she knew to reappear. Only then did he lower himself against her body surrounding her, and kissed her swollen lips in the tenderest manner.
His elbows still supported most of his weight and she delighted in touching his hard body, honed by battle and hardship. He peppered all the skin he could reach with sweet kisses for a while, but when he looked back into her eyes, the unbending hardness was still there.
“I don’t want you around Finch anymore. I can’t take having his hands on you, and when you kissed him…” Lost for words, Kai only shook his head. “I don’t know how I held back and didn’t turn him into a bloody pulp.”
Isabel caressed his soft, brown locks. “I know he’s your father and that it’s way wrong.”
“No, I never thought of him as my father. I don’t have a father. I can’t bear the sight of you touching that monster, of him touching you, potentially contaminating you with his evil. Don’t you understand, Isabel, that you are too important? To me you are something way too precious to be sullied by his words, mouth, or hands.”
With her fingers, she traced all the worry lines she could see, wishing them away although she knew it would take much more than a wish. “I don’t want him to touch me, but I know the importance of stopping him. Now more than ever.”
“Not if you are the price!”
Her fingertips lingered on his lips and when he kissed them, she offered him a sad but resolute smile. “I want him taken down too. I won’t make promises I won’t be able to keep. I won’t do that to you ever again. Don’t ask me now. The only thing I will promise, with all my heart, is that I’ll do my damn best to avoid any contact with him. I won’t initiate it.”
Clearly, Kai wasn’t happy with her answer, but knew she could be as stubborn as he was. “I don’t want you hurt, Izzy.”
If she hadn’t already fallen for the man, she would have at that precise moment when she knew he had opened a fragile, vulnerable part of himself that she had forced him to shut down all those years ago. Why she didn’t say the words that were shivering on her lips was a mystery even to her, but that didn’t lessen her feelings, and she knew now that she would do anything to be worthy of him.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kai knew he was about to cross to the other side of the looking glass when he saw Isabel coming out of her bedroom as an invisible fist shot up and grabbed him by the throat.
Isabel had transformed into Mercury Heat.
There wasn’t anything inappropriate about the woman before him; the black skirt reached her knees, her blouse was buttoned up to her neck, but somehow she looked even more naked that way. The skirt, made of leather, or was it latex, was so tight against her hips and encased her legs in a way that probably made it difficult to walk.
The white blouse was like gossamer, translucent in a way that showed her black bra underneath. Her legs were clad in stockings and on her feet were incredibly
high red pumps made of patent leather. What made his cock grow uncomfortably hard was the locks of violet hair tumbling down her back and grazing her ass, like an arrow showing the way.
“Kai?”
Her voice brought him back to the present and he looked at her. Isabel had on more makeup than usual, and he agreed that it changed her features enough to conceal her identity unless you were really looking. It all looked natural though, but more defined.
“You look like sin. I remember seeing your body back in the day, but having you before me, dressed like this is a shock.”
Isabel’s expression was uncertain as she looked down at herself. “I wear more clothes now, but I still dress the part if I need to be Mercury. It’s a lot of trouble, but it helps keep my worlds separate. Isabel Osborne would never be seen with the likes of Mercury Heat.”
Kai could have said a lot of things, but in his mind now, there weren’t two separate women. There was only one, and his Izzy was a very complex, interesting, and dressed such as this, arousing lady.
“Stop grinning like that.”
This time he laughed. “What? I shouldn’t grin?”
“I’m dressed as my porn character, I thought you would be anything but pleased at seeing me like this.”
“I told you, I’m coming to terms with it … or her. Are you going to shoot a video?”
Isabel rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Mercury is a businesswoman now.”
“So I can only see two problems on my part.”
Amusement fled her eyes. “What?”
“How can I convince you to wear that outfit when we are alone, and how do I get you out of that skirt?”
Her laughter alleviated some of the tension in the air. “You are never going to have sex with Mercury Heat. Deal with it, surfer dude.”
When she walked past him to grab her bag, he saw the indecently high slit revealing her thigh, which explained how she was able to walk in that contraption. “I’ll agree to lose the wig, and keep the heels.”
Kai checked his phone and confirmed that Sam was in position in Archer’s town car in the back alley. Another requirement from Isabel he didn’t like was that she didn’t want to use the front door dressed that way. A small security hazard, but one he could understand.
“I never thought you had a foot fetish.”
He shook his head as he put his earpiece in place and straightened his jacket. “I have an Izzy fetish. It’s even more potent now.” He opened the door and looked out before Isabel followed suit. As soon as they crossed the threshold, both of them turned deadly serious, and Kai appreciated that in her.
Down by the building’s back door, Kai touched his ear to check with Sam and when his brother confirmed that the coast was clear, he ushered her inside the car.
For outside eyes, he sat in front with Sam, although he would have preferred to sit in the back with Isabel.
Sam stayed silent until they were out of the neighborhood, and both of them confirmed that they weren’t followed. Kai knew that Gabrielle had placed a tracker in the car, so any member of the team could follow them at a distance as another layer of safety. However, Kai knew from experience that a situation could turn from safe to deadly in less than a second, so he kept his eyes peeled for any possible threats.
Mercury Productions was about 35 minutes from Isabel’s apartment, in a sector where old and abandoned factories were slowly being renovated. It was obvious that in a couple of years, this neighborhood would be sought after, and the investment Isabel had made would be worth it. Another thing that popped into his mind was that the location was very close to the pizzeria where he had found her and Gabrielle. And that dark alley. Why the girls had gone there without telling anyone made sense now.
Another trait he admired about Isabel was her flair for where and when to go and what to get. She may not be a conventional business entrepreneur like Archer, but she was creating her own empire one step at a time. Archer had pulled him aside before they had left his home that morning, and had revealed a few interesting facts about Isabel Osborne, her various real-estate investments as well as the way she did business. Kai wasn’t the only one who admired her. Archer saw in Isabel a new way of doing business in an ever-changing world; people oriented, respectful of the past and the environment, major community investments … the more he uncovered things about her, the more he wanted to know.
When they arrived, Isabel indicated a side garage entrance and pushed a few buttons on her phone to open it.
A quick look at Sam silently confirmed that his brother also noticed a high-tech security system. It wouldn’t surprise him if Gabrielle had something to do with it.
Once they parked near the elevator, the three of them rode it to the top floor where Isabel had installed her studio. Kai had expected something slick and upscale, but when the elevator doors opened, it was like stepping into a furniture store. Several couches of all styles piled on one side, with chairs and stacks of clean laundry perfectly folded on shelves.
Sam seemed at a much of a loss as he was. “What is it?”
Isabel looked up from her phone. “Our storage area. The two studios can only hold so many items, and when the style or mood changes, we have the furniture to go with the scene.”
That made sense, and Kai followed Isabel as she made her way through the small maze of things. He heard a woman scream to his right, and both he and Sam reached for their guns before they realized why the woman was screaming. Kai smiled and Sam shook his head, clearly finding the situation outlandish. Kai elbowed his stuck-up brother to tease him before walking on.
Isabel turned to her left down a small hallway. A man in his birthday suit with an impressive erection came out of a break room, a coffee in hand.
“Hey, Mercury!”
Barely looking up from her phone, Isabel waved at the man. “Hello, Alan! Glad to see you aren’t late for once.”
Sam frowned and shook his head once more. At this rate, Kai was convinced that Sam would quit in an hour and never return. Kai wasn’t happy to see naked men around Isabel, but with the way she dismissed him, something eased inside his chest.
At the end of the hallway, the door was open and they entered. It was a large office, more like what he had expected from the studio. Clean lines, comfortable, and very like the woman he knew from the way her apartment looked. The wall of glass behind the desk where dusk was illuminating the city in hues of oranges and reds was the true luxury here.
Isabel dropped her bag and was making her way out the door again when a woman entered. Clad in a white shirt dress and nude pumps, she was older than Isabel, but stunningly beautiful. Her hair was a pale blond, edging on gray, styled to perfection in a messy bob and she wore chandelier earrings. She was a vision, and when Isabel gave her a big hug Kai realized it was her mother.
Stunned, Kai looked away to see Sam with his eyes glued to the woman like he had seen an apparition.
Isabel gave her mother a final kiss before making the introductions.
“Mom, I’d like you to meet my friends, Sam Sarkhan and Kai Jones. Guys, this is my mother, Claire Osborne.”
All the softness of her blue eyes, the same as her daughters, turned from warm to assessing. “Welcome to Mercury Productions. Isabel, I’m guessing that if you needed to see me, it wasn’t to introduce me to some new recruits.”
Kai lost air for a second, but it was Sam who started coughing. “No, Ms. Osborne. Isabel is helping us bring a dangerous man down.”
Isabel winced when her mother turned to her with more than worry on her face. “What is this about? What dangerous man?”
“Mom, let’s sit and I’ll explain everything.”
The four of them went to sit on the sofa and chairs arranged in the corner. Isabel summarized the situation, cleverly avoiding mention of being chased and shot at, focusing instead on how Finch needed to be stopped at all cost.
Claire Osborne listened carefully, and Kai could see where Isabel’s intelligence came from. “I see,
of course, there are always ways to know that sort of thing, and as you know, I keep an ear out for any mention of The Gallery since you were involved with them. I haven’t heard anything.”
Kai leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Is there anyone on your staff who may know something?”
Isabel’s mother wasn’t happy that he’d suggested that some of her employees could be involved in a pedophile ring, but quickly switched to another topic. “The last Isabel and I heard about them was just after the takedown. Gabrielle and her team hit them hard and we heard rumors that they were searching for actresses and actors that looked more juvenile for want of a better term.”
Isabel nodded. “Yes, that’s true. However, it was only a rumor, probably a plan B until they could get back on their feet again. We were just starting to plan our business, and it wasn’t our intention to go into that line of work so we never maintained that type of relationship.”
Sam, who had been silent until now, made a suggestion. “I’m sure you are a prominent member of your community, and as you said, you keep your ear to the ground. Are there any other producers that may dabble in that … style of movie? Maybe one of them has dealt with The Gallery and could still have contacts.”
For a long time, Claire locked eyes with Sam before closing them, and rubbing her temples. “It’s not part of our philosophy to keep in contact with people like that. People may think what we do is filth, but I prefer our brand of filth to things that walk so close to the line, they should be forbidden. However, there is a production house that specializes in … treading that very fine line.”
Isabel leaned back onto her chair. “Are you talking about Jenny?”
Kai looked at both women. “Who?”
“Jenny Anderson, also called Jenny Lips. She’s a handful, to say the least. As Mom and I are trying to walk the line and offer quality, she’s more into production and money, whatever the means. We’ve steered far away from her as much as possible, so have our employees. Most of the industry tends to stay away from her because some of the stuff she produces is illegal or for underground audiences. From what I know, she’s never used children, but doesn’t hesitate to make it look like she has in her videos. If The Gallery contacted someone, it was probably her.”
