A Sinful Encore

by Lisa Renee Jones

  My lips press together and I let my phone fall from my ear. “Savage wants cookies. So did the woman, according to him. She had a husband and kids with her and they all wanted cookies.”

  “See,” Kace says, stroking my shoulders. “All is well, baby.”

  His touch, his intention, I know is just another way he’s telling me that he’s here, he’s with me, and while I know that, he’s not alone, either. Jenny and Jerry are here. “It still doesn’t feel right, Kace. I know you know none of this feels right.”

  “I know and I’m not going to pretend I don’t. We’re in this together, and as you said, the good, the bad, the ugly. We know there’s ugly. Which is why we’re going to Germany. And we’re flying private. They won’t know we left or where we went. Blake is a technology magician. He’ll keep us invisible.”

  “I trust Blake. I wish Gio would cooperate. I think we’d know more. I need to try to get through to him one more time before we leave. I need to tell him I’m leaving and I have to warn him about me coming out as, well, me.”

  His expression tightens, a cynical tinge to his voice. “I don’t know, baby. Can we talk about this later, when we’re alone? And we will. Of course, we will. I promise.”

  I never miss the way he communicates. He demands in bed. He asks outside of bed. I like this about him. I love this about him. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  He captures my hand and brings it to his mouth. The minute his lips touch my knuckles, his gaze collides with mine, and I’m floating in the deep blue sea of his eyes, the tension the mere mention of Gio has created in us both, fading. “We should go say our goodbyes,” he says, his fingers twining with mine. “The real estate agent wants to meet us in fifteen minutes. She can only get us into one tonight. The other two are tomorrow.”

  “I can’t wait to see them,” I say.

  His lips curve. “Me either, baby. Me either.” He turns toward the tables, intending to take me with him.

  My feet plant and I grab his arm, rotating him back to me. “I talked to Nancy. I’m concerned about keeping her away from Gio and the store while we’re gone. I also want her to feel secure in her job. I feel like inviting her to the apartment would be a good way to do that. If you’re okay with it?”

  He shifts more directly in front of me, and when I lift my gaze, only a few inches separating us, those piercing blue eyes of his capture mine—eyes that see too much, seeing perhaps what I don’t even realize there is to see. “Why would you ask me that? It’s your apartment, too.”

  Why indeed? I don’t want to be unsteady in his world, I’m not really, but I’m still not firmly planted. Maybe I won’t be until I close the circle that connects the past and present. “You’re an inherently private person and—”

  His hand comes down on my neck over my hair. “This is why we need to move. You need to feel like our place is your home, too.”

  “I do. I really do, I just—”

  “Not yet you don’t, but baby, you will.” His voice is low, rough, a command that feels more like it’s meant for him, not me. And it’s also a promise. “I’m going to make sure of it,” he adds. “Invite her over, sooner rather than later. We’re not here long.”

  “Actually, I invited her to the house at eight. Do you think we can make that?”

  He releases me, his eyes ripe with approval. “You invited her?”

  “I did. See? I’m not standing outside the door. I’m inside with you.”

  His lips curve. “Yes. You are.” He glances at his watch and back at me. “We should be fine. The property is right around the corner.” His hand slides to my hip, and he pulls me close one more time. “I do look forward to our first Christmas here, in our new home, together. I’m sorry it can’t be this year.”

  “Me, too,” I whisper, my heart squeezing with the promise of a next year with him, the promise of our own home and traditions.

  This is my fairy tale come true. And just like my mother did in her own way, I’m fighting for my happy ending.

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, the woman I’d seen outside the bakery, on the street, has faded from my mind, at least for the time being, and with good reason. Kace and I are just around the corner from the bakery at a luxurious high-rise building. Specifically, on the eleventh floor while a pretty blonde realtor named Carmen opens the doors to an apartment and motions us forward. “Location is everything,” she says, “but this one has far more to offer than just location.” She smiles a friendly smile at both of us. “I’ll leave you two to enjoy the walkthrough.”

  Kace and I enter the apartment directly into a gorgeous whitewashed living area that almost appears to float on the water, the floors shiny white tiles, the entire front wall a seamless glass window. “It makes the first impression,” Kace says as the door shuts behind us.

  “It does,” I agree, tilting my chin to glance at him. “But so does your current place.”

  “You mean, our current place.”

  “Yes,” I correct. “Our current place. Slip of the tongue.”

  “Hmm,” he says, his eyes filling with mischief. “Seems worthy of punishment later.”

  “Oh no,” I say. “Enough of that today.”

  His lips curve. “We’ll see.”

  “The apartment,” I say. “I’m going to look around.” I twist away from him and start walking.

  A low sexy rumble of masculine laughter escapes his chest and does funny things to my belly. “I’ll go with you,” he says, catching up to me, and then we’re holding hands, talking about every feature of the apartment.

  The entire place is stunning with an open concept kitchen, a gym, and to my shock, an indoor pool, as well as an outrageously large outdoor space. We end our viewing at the island in the kitchen, side by side, facing each other. “What do you think?” he asks.

  “It’s gorgeous, and honestly, Kace, looking at a place like this to call home is a pretty amazing feeling, but so is living where we live now. Where would you put your vault? And where would you rehearse?”

  “We’ll custom build. Honestly, I’d probably just gut it all and start over.”

  “But it’s a beautiful place,” I argue.

  “It needs to be our place. The location is perfect. The view is stunning.”

  “Yes. I agree. But how much would that cost?”

  “I don’t really care,” he says. “We both need and want to move. I’d like us to hire a contractor and do this our way.”

  “How much does a place like this cost?”

  “It’s a wash once I sell the old place.”

  “How much, Kace?” I press.

  “Baby,” he catches my hip and steps into me, “you aren’t ready for those kinds of numbers and you know it.”

  “I suppose not,” I say, giving him a little smile, “but I want to do my part, and I need to figure how big a success I need to be. You know, set big goals. How many Stradivariuses do I need to sell?”

  His mood sobers instantly. “Aria—”

  I press my hand to his mouth. “I’m not riding your wallet. Ever. So, don’t say what you’re going to say. And you know my wings were clipped for my entire life. I need to see how high I can fly.”

  He captures my hand at his mouth and settles it on his arm. “I know. You know I know.”

  There is something in the way he says those few, simple words that, paired with the flicker of a shadow in his eyes, leads me to one place. “Because of your father.”

  “Yes. He wanted me to be one thing. I wanted to be another. In a strange way, that’s not so unlike you and your mother, she just had better reasons for holding you back than my father did me.”

  “Your father did a horrible job of holding you back.”

  “And thank God for it because had he succeeded, I might not have met your father, and you.” He shifts back to a broader topic, softening his tone, his knuckles brushing my cheek. “Just be with me, baby. Live life with me. See the world
with me.”

  A world that would have remained a tiny corner of Manhattan until I met him, I think. “I am,” I say. “I am seeing more of the world every day since I met you.”

  “And we’ve only begun. On a somewhat different note, there was something I noticed tonight when we were with Jenny and Jerry.”

  My brows furrow. “What was that?”

  “You downright panicked when Jenny was going to bring up marriage.”

  My heart explodes in my chest while my hand flattens on his. “I know you’re not a forever guy, Kace. I mean, I know we talked about forever, but I just thought it was awkward.”

  “Aria, baby, I have broken every rule I wrote with you.”

  “I’m not sure what that means,” I say cautiously.

  His hands settle on my lower back, molding us intimately close, our legs entwined. “It means that I’m in this for keeps.” He strokes my hair from my face and tilts my gaze to his. “I know we need to let everything shake out. I know you need to get to the other side of this secret you’ve been hiding. And I know you need to see where you land afterward, but just know this. I want it to be with me. And then we’ll talk about what forever means for us. I love you, baby.”

  “I love you, too. And I want to land right next to you.”

  “Remember that. Okay?”

  “Why are you saying that?”

  “We’re about to shake up your world, Aria. We’re about to open doors that have been closed. We don’t know what is on the other side.”

  “But we are,” I say, needing to hang onto him and us, trying not to think about how easily Gio might be lost. “We are.”

  “That’s right, baby. We are.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  With time to kill before my meeting with Nancy, Kace and I decide to check out the other two properties on our own. We can’t visit the apartments, but we can view the locations. For the small price of the cookies I’ve packaged up at the bakery, we score a ride with Savage and Adrian. And, of course, in between cookies, they entertain us in the process. “The sugar’s the best,” Savage says, licking icing from his fingers.

  “I vote chocolate and peanut butter,” Adrian chimes in.

  “Of course he does,” Savage replies, eyeing us around his seat. “He lives on peanut butter cups.”

  “Only on weekdays,” Adrian says. “On the weekend I eat junk food.”

  I laugh and nudge Kace. “I think I need to live like him.”

  “You will in Europe, I promise you,” he says, motioning to a building and Savage has Adrian pull over. “We’re going to get out and get a good look at the area,” Kace says, opening his door and exiting to offer me his hand.

  I join him on the street, the night air brisk, but the snow is now long gone, and hand and hand Kace and I walk toward the towering steel building. The area is nice, though the restaurant and shopping, we decide, is limited. With Kace’s finesse, we are actually able to walk inside the building and talk to the staff, all pleasant, but in the end, we both agree. It’s just not up to the standards of the first building.

  A few minutes later, we do the same at the second building, with about the same outcome. We’re just headed back to the SUV where Adrian and Savage lean on the vehicle, waiting for us, when an odd tingling slides down my neck. My hand goes to that newly formed hotspot under my hair and I cannot resist looking over my shoulder, scanning to find no one is there.

  Kace’s arm slides around me and he angles us together, scanning behind us as well. “What’s up, baby?”

  “I don’t know. I just had this odd sensation of being watched.” I glance at Savage and Adrian, who seem unaffected, and back to Kace. “But they would know, right?”

  I’ve barely spoken the question when Adrian appears by our side. “Problem?”

  “Nothing really,” I say. “I just had an odd sense of being watched. I don’t know if you know what I mean, but—”

  “I do and never second-guess your gut. It exists for a reason.” He makes some kind of signal to Savage and then steps aside. “Climb into the vehicle where it’s warm,” he instructs. “We’ll check the camera and have a man do a foot search.”

  “Come on, baby,” Kace says, his hand on my back urging me forward, and I don’t have to be told twice.

  I eagerly slide into the back of the SUV and once Kace has joined me, I say, “I hope I didn’t turn nothing into something.”

  “Better safe than sorry. Always. Let them handle it and we’ll focus on something positive like putting in an offer on that apartment.”

  Stunned, I twist around to face him. “This fast?”

  “I don’t want us to lose it and I’d like to try and get it built out while we’re gone. Or at least close to finished so we don’t end up living in a hotel. You’re happy with it, right?”

  “Of course, I’m happy with it,” I say, and he doesn’t need further encouragement.

  He has his phone in hand when Savage and Adrian join us in the vehicle. “All clear,” Savage says, glancing back at us, “but we’re following up with the cameras.”

  Already we’re moving and already Kace is on the phone. I’m silently pondering the woman I’d seen earlier and now this incident, wondering if I’m losing my mind, or what. Just about when I decide I am, Kace is making an offer at ten percent under asking for half in cash. I don’t even want to know how much that is going to be and I focus on the excitement instead.

  Thirty seconds later, he’s disconnected. “Done.” He’s all nonchalant as if he hasn’t just offered some insane amount of money for a place to live. “Now we wait,” he adds.

  “When will we know?” I ask.

  “For this level of real estate, maybe tonight,” Kace says.

  Tonight, I repeat in my mind.

  It all feels so fast. Kace’s urgency to do this feels fast, too. I mean his logic for why he’s rushing makes sense, but he was so adamant he wouldn’t be pushed out of the building. I’m afraid this is all about that “more” he has planned for Alexander.

  For now, though, I just want to get us both out of this city.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The people that mean the most to me in this world are divided and fighting their own private wars. We would be stronger together and I’m the bridge to narrow that divide.

  Kace and I arrive back at our place just before Nancy is set to arrive and before we ever exit the SUV, we have word on the apartment. The buyer is eager to sell and accepted Kace’s offer.

  “Happy?” he asks.

  “Are you?”

  “Only if you are.”

  “Yes,” I say, surprised at how much I mean that word. “Very happy.”

  His eyes light and I can see that I have pleased him. I might not know his full motivation to make this move, but I know it matters to him. And I know he wants this new life and home for us to share.

  With no time to revel in our victory, the minute we walk in the door and shed our coats, Kace says, “I’ll put some coffee on for Nancy’s visit.”

  I step in front of him, blocking his path. “I can’t just leave Gio, Kace. I have to try to talk to him again. I have to see him.”

  “And tell him what?”

  “That we’re leaving. He needs to leave, too. That we’re all stronger together. Think how much easier this might be with the information in his head.”

  “I don’t trust him, baby, and neither do you. I don’t want you to tell him that we’re leaving.”

  “I can’t leave and not tell him. I mean, I know he did that to me, but we both know I’m about to rock his world when I announce my identity.”

  He looks skyward, his jaw twitching before he looks at me again. “Tell him we’re going to the Hamptons for a few weeks. Don’t tell him we’re going to Europe. Nothing else.”

  “I’m revealing his identity with mine,” I argue.

  “Not for weeks, if not longer, depending on what Blake has to say. Do not
give him a chance to talk to the wrong people and say the wrong things.”

  I want to hate him for turning on my brother, but I can’t. I know Gio created Kace’s distrust and anger. And he’s not alone. I feel these things, too. I’m just his sister. That shifts the dynamic. “The idea that he would do that hurts. And the idea of leaving him behind hurts.”

  “I know. And I get it. I do. I promise.” Kace cups my head and kisses my forehead. “Call him, baby.” He inches back to look at me. “Just don’t tell him too much. Okay?”

  “Yes. That’s a good plan.”

  He kisses my temple. “I’ll make the coffee.” He steps around me and I grab my phone from my purse, hang the purse on the coatrack, and punch in Gio’s number. Of course, it goes to voicemail.

  I sigh and leave him a message. “Gio, I’m leaving the city. I don’t feel safe here. I don’t know for how long. A few weeks maybe. I won’t be far, but I want to see you and talk to you before I leave. I beg of you. Please call me.” I disconnect and there is a knock on the door.

  I shove my phone in the pocket of my jeans and hurry to the door and reach for the handle, only to stop myself. Instead, I walk to the security panel that’s similar to the one I had at the store and use the video feed to confirm our visitor is Nancy. Thankfully, it is and I quickly open the door. “Oh my God,” she exclaims the moment she sees me. “You live here?”

  I laugh and she hurries inside, hugging me before shrugging out of her coat. “I cannot believe how life has changed for you,” she says, running a hand over the pink sweater she’s paired with black jeans. “I feel underdressed even being here.”

  “Don’t be silly. You look great.” And I think to myself, she has no idea how much life has changed, but at some point, she’ll know just how much. Just not now. “Let’s go to the kitchen. Kace put on coffee.”

  “Kace made us coffee.” She grins. “I love your new life.”

  We head out into the living room and she gasps. “Is that a Stradivarius?”

  “It is,” I say.