The Golden Pecker

by Penelope Bloom

  “My nightmare?” I said, inching backwards to give myself more space to breathe—space that wasn’t occupied by him and that ungodly good smell of his. “Well, don’t look so pleased with yourself. I always have nightmares about really nasty public restrooms. So you can try to sound all sexy if you want, but, yeah.”

  Landon straightened, but still looked like his mind was racing with dark, dark ideas. “If I don’t see you soon, I’ll come find you. William’s orders,” he added, as if it was an afterthought.

  I grabbed the rest of my clothes, thought about saying one more smartass comment, and then decided it was better to just leave. Landon had a way of turning my sarcasm and attempts at humor into twisted sexual perversions. Worse, it felt like the more I resisted him, the more I could see some kind of growing, ravenous desire for me welling up inside him.

  12

  Landon

  I ran my finger across the golden rooster emblem that was engraved into the bar. Once again, Andi was keeping me waiting. Instead of doing the self-respecting thing and moving on, I’d barely been able to think about anything else. It had been nearly a week since I tied her up and got my first taste. I’d been dead sure she would come crawling into the club after that, maybe even that same night. She could lie to my face if she wanted, but I’d seen the way she reacted to the promise of my touch. I knew how badly she craved it.

  But when a day turned into days, and now days were threatening to turn into a week, I was forced to wonder if I’d read her wrong.

  James turned his head and took me in with those dark, penetrating eyes of his. The question on his face was clear.

  “She’ll come,” I said, almost to myself.

  “What makes this one different?” he asked in his deep, gravelly voice.

  He might not have said as much, but I knew exactly what he meant. What makes her different than Sydney? Sydney had been like the finale in a long, frustrating string of relationships. I’d vented to James afterwards about how I was done for the foreseeable future. No more dating. Women were just out to use me in one way or another, and I’d sworn I wouldn’t fall into that trap again.

  “She’s different,” I said. Was she? After all, Andi had a very obvious reason to continue pursuing me. I held her inheritance in the palm of my hand. If she pissed me off, she probably knew it was likely to cost her everything.

  James’ gaze seemed to shoot straight through me.

  I sighed. “Alright. Fine. I don’t know if she is different, but I hope she is. I’ve enjoyed spending time with her, and I’m willing to put myself on the line again.”

  “Fair enough,” James said in his rumbling voice. “Speaking of mistakes.” He lifted his glass and tipped it toward something behind me.

  I followed his eyes and tensed. Sydney was standing on the other side of the lobby. She was wearing a sheer dress that left nothing to the imagination. She was sleek with almost exaggerated proportions.

  She made a point of noticing who was admiring her, so it only took a few heartbeats before she caught me looking. She smiled in a self-satisfied way and started toward my brother and me.

  James didn’t waste any time. “Count me out,” he grumbled, standing and leaving without hesitation.

  Bastard.

  Sydney eyed him over her shoulder and then turned her attention to me. She had silky black hair and the eyes of a seductress. None of that had any effect on me. Not anymore, at least. She had been like an island oasis in a long, lonely stretch of ocean once. I’d learned the hard way that those waters weren’t nearly as beautiful as they seemed—that just beneath the waves were razor sharp rocks and coral that would have torn me to shreds if I hadn’t left when I did.

  In a way, I probably should’ve thanked her. She had been enough of a nightmare to finally snap me out of it. I hadn’t dated a woman like her since she and I broke up. Hell, I hadn’t dated, period.

  “Sydney,” I said coldly. “I thought you were spending your time at The Diamond Pecker, lately.”

  “Maybe I missed you,” she said with a teasing edge to her voice. “I heard a little rumor that you were courting a new submissive.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said.

  “But is it true?”

  “It’s not your business anymore.”

  She titled her nose up, just slightly. Sydney was the daughter of a real estate mogul, and she’d been raised to believe anything she wanted should be hers—information and people included. “You’re not still sour about how things ended between us, are you?”

  I gritted my teeth. “If I lost a piece of gold, I would be upset. But if I found out that piece of gold was fake, why would I care anymore?”

  She sniffed dismissively. “It’s cute when you try to hurt me. You want everybody to think you’re some tough, imposing dom. But I know how soft you are on the inside. I know all about what your daddy—”

  I stood suddenly. The screech of my chair cut her off mid-sentence. “We’re done,” I growled. The coward inside me quickly put it together. If Sydney so much as suspected that Andi didn’t know the truth about who my father was, she could ruin everything.

  “Landon,” she purred in an attempt to placate me. She reached to toy with the lapels of my jacket. “You trusted me enough to open up to me once. Just because we broke up, it doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me anymore.”

  I removed her hands. “We’re done,” I repeated.

  “I’ll be here when you change your mind, sweetie,” she called after me. “And say hi to that new submissive for me. I can’t wait until I have a chance to tell her all about you.”

  I tensed, and I nearly turned to warn her to stay the hell away from Andi. I knew Sydney, though, and that meant giving her any sign of how much she’d gotten under my skin would only encourage her. It might also tip her off to the fact that I was hiding a dangerous truth from Andi. With an effort, I kept walking.

  One thing was certain. Sydney wasn’t the sort of problem that went away if you ignored it long enough. Now that she had her sights on screwing up whatever was or wasn’t building between Andi and I, it was only a matter of time before she got involved.

  I headed up through the wine cellar and into the hotel proper. I cut through the lobby, down the West Wing of the hotel, and descended the stairs to the indoor pool below the first level. I found a locker and changed into a swimsuit.

  Sometimes, all I wanted to do was float and let my mind clear. Today, I felt like I needed to burn off some frustration, so I was going to get in a workout.

  The familiar smell of chlorine filled the echoey room. An elderly man was swimming laps in one of the lanes, but I otherwise had the pool to myself. I dove in and started to stroke in a measured but aggressive pace. There was a point of exhaustion where I’d be too tired to think—too tired to let my mind pick through Sydney’s words and the memories they stirred up. It’d also mean I could stop worrying about whether Andi would ever come back to finish the list. That point was my goal. I just wanted those few minutes of blindness.

  I reached the other end of the pool, reversed, and kicked off the wall. I broke the surface again and kept stroking, but faster this time. Unwelcome memories bubbled up. I saw my father when he’d still preferred getting drunk every night to spending time with us. I saw the look he’d always get on his face before he’d lose his temper. I saw mom crying after everything fell apart. I closed my eyes and pushed harder, even though it felt like my lungs were beginning to burn.

  After a few more laps at a near-sprint pace, I had to stop and gasp for breath with my arms on the edge of the pool.

  “You okay?” asked a girl I vaguely recognized.

  I pulled my goggles off and then remembered where’d I’d seen her. She was Andi’s younger sister, Bree.

  “Not sure your sister would approve of you talking to me,” I said.

  Bree gave me a mischievous, crooked smile that reminded me of her sister. She sat down cross legged by the edge of the pool. She was dressed like she�
��d just finished exercising in leggings and a bright blue, sleeveless top. I could see a lot of Andi in her, but she didn’t have the same aggressively sarcastic and difficult vibe about her. Instead, I thought she was probably the type of girl teachers loved and parents dreamed about having. A good person. “Andi isn’t my mom,” she said. “So, I don’t need her approval.”

  I laughed. “And you’re lucky for that.”

  Bree smiled. “Okay, to be fair, Andi and Audria actually did practically raise me. So, she’s not technically my mom, but I’m also kind of terrified by the idea of pissing her off. So… please don’t tell her I talked to you.”

  “Yeah. I can see how Andi would inspire terror.”

  Bree’s eyebrows drew together. “Have you seen her again? She told me about the whole club thing, but that was it.”

  Something in my tone must’ve given away that I knew her better than a single night together could’ve explained. Bree was perceptive, it seemed. “If your sister didn’t want to talk about it, I don’t think it’s my place to say.”

  Bree nodded. Apparently, she was also respectful of her sister’s privacy. “I actually wanted to find you because I was curious. Did grandpa say anything to you about a video for Audria and I? It’s just that it has been a while now since Andi got hers, and since you knew about that one—”

  “Nothing, sorry.”

  “Right. I just thought it’d be worth asking.” Bree started to get up.

  “Hey,” I said, hating that I was desperate enough to ask what I was about to ask. “Is Andi okay? I haven’t heard from her since—” I cleared my throat. “It’s been a while.”

  Bree smiled knowingly, then sat back down. “Why do you ask?”

  “The smile on your face says you know exactly why I’m asking. Do I have to say it?”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes it’s nice to have your suspicions confirmed out loud.”

  “Fine. I’m asking because I wasn’t ready to be done with the Andi chapter of my life.”

  “Wow,” she said. “That’s a lot more emphatic than if you’d just said, ‘yeah, I like her.’” Bree stroked her chin. “The Andi chapter of your life. Hmm.”

  “Well?” I asked. “Is she okay?”

  “Oh, she’s fine. She has just been going to work and mysteriously avoiding the lobby of the hotel. But now I guess I know why that is.”

  “She’s avoiding me?”

  “You know,” Bree said. “I know I’m young, and this is probably going to make you want to roll your eyes. But I’ve always been good at reading people. Andi, she’s a lot more delicate than she lets on. All the jokes and sarcasm are just like her walls. Relationships have never really worked out for her, so maybe she’s too scared to try again.”

  “I see,” I said. “So tracking her down and pushing the issue might just push her farther away?”

  Bree thought about that. “I’m not sure, but I have a feeling if you wait long enough, she’ll find you.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  Bree shrugged. “Like I said, I’ve always been good at reading people. That’s just what my gut tells me.”

  “Comforting,” I said. I slid my goggles back on over my eyes. “Any last nuggets of wisdom?”

  “You’re arching your back too much. Try to keep your core a little tighter on those front strokes.”

  I squinted at her.

  “Swim team for four years,” she said. “You could be really good, you know, if you had a hint of form. And if you weren’t an old geezer,” she added with a grin.

  “I’m thirty-four,” I said dryly.

  “Yeah, nearly double my age. See ya, geezer,” she said, standing and walking off.

  I shook my head. Maybe my judgment of Bree hadn’t been entirely accurate. She had some of that patented Andi obnoxiousness lurking in her, as well.

  I started swimming, but no amount of exhaustion could push Andi from my thoughts.

  One night in the club together. One date. That had been all it took to plant a seed that seemed to want to grow out of control. The way she kept vanishing out of my life only made it worse.

  I wasn’t sure I could follow Bree’s advice of leaving Andi alone for any longer than I already had, but I knew I had to try.

  13

  Andi

  I pulled up the neckline of my dress, only to have it fall right back down into its revealing position a moment later. I was just outside the wine cellar entrance to The Golden Pecker.

  It had been exactly one week since our little dolphin extravaganza at the aquarium. My plan had been simple. Cool off.

  There was no point denying it. My experience with Landon had been hot. Like, microwave hot—the kind of hot you could only get by accidentally adding a zero when microwaving a potato and you leave it in for twenty minutes instead of two. There was only one thing to do in those situations. You step back from the potato that is glowing like the core of an angry, dying sun, and wait. Even when you think it might be safe to touch, you still don’t.

  Except I had unfortunately learned that my potato was still in the microwave. Waiting had only intensified everything I felt. All the confusing desires and the curiosity and even the grudging admission that I was starting to like Landon. No, I’d liked him from the first encounter. I was starting to crave Landon, and that was a much, much more dangerous proposition.

  Tonight, I was going to put an end to it. Waiting was only making me crazier. If my goal was not to get emotionally tied up with a man, I was sure would eventually break my heart, I needed to get this over with.

  So there I was, dressed a little more to fit in at The Golden Pecker, but still mostly within my comfort zone.

  I’d texted Landon and asked him to let me in. I could’ve used Audria’s dildo again, but that would’ve involved asking my sister to borrow her dildo. For obvious reasons, I went with the more direct approach. It was the most straight-to-the-point, I’m-definitely-not-into-you text I could think of: “Let me in, asshole.”

  His reply of “K” came a few minutes later.

  I wasn’t exactly expecting him to send a gushing, grateful text that I’d finally stopped blowing him off, but still. The bastard could’ve at least typed the whole word out.

  I leaned against the door and tried to look bored, annoyed, and casual all at the same time. I even ran over some biting things I could say when he showed up. Let’s get this over with, dickface. Or maybe… Yes. I grinned to myself. I had the perfect idea.

  There was a faint clicking noise from behind me, and then the wall I was leaning on fell away.

  I pinwheeled my arms for a few seconds and then wound up plopping on my ass, which was currently clad in a shortish dress that was much less conservative than what I wore my first night.

  Landon hooked me under the arms and lifted me to my feet as if I weighed about as much as a loose booger—not that I knew how much boogers weighed, for the record.

  I dusted myself off. “Thanks, but I can stand up on my own.”

  “I’m glad you came back,” he said. “I have to admit, I—”

  I held up my palm to stop him. All the distant fear I’d felt about my growing feelings for Landon seemed to double in an instant. I was afraid he’d say something that was going to make me fall deeper, so I did what I always did—something stupid. “Actually. I didn’t come here tonight for Grandpa Willy’s list. Or you. I wanted to experience the club for myself a little bit.” Of course, it was a bold-faced lie, but I couldn’t seem to help myself from sabotaging whatever feelings he might have for me.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Landon said. The way his dark hair was slightly messy and coming loose over his intense eyes had an admittedly startling effect, but I refused to be swayed.

  “Thankfully I’m not obligated to live according to what you consider a good or bad idea. So…” I weaved around him and started walking down the hallway toward the lobby of The Golden Pecker.

  Landon caught me by the shoulder and turned me to face
him, almost roughly. The suddenness of it pissed me off, and I shoved him by the chest. Hard. Except he was too solid to be moved, so I only succeeded in hurting my wrists and nearly falling backwards.

  I saw anger, rage, and maybe even a flame of desire explode in his features as he advanced toward me. As much as I wanted to hold my ground, I couldn’t help being backed toward the wall. He slapped one palm against the wall above my head and bent down. His lips crashed into mine, pushing my head back with the force of it.

  All I did was survive the moment for the first few seconds—like being caught in a massive wave so big the only option was to relax and hope you weren’t dashed against the jagged rocks just below the surface.

  Then I was kissing him back. My emotions were a tangled ball I didn’t even care to try to decipher. All I needed was the press of his lips against mine—that velvety crush of warmth that made it feel like my world had turned to glitter and fireworks.

  His hands were so big and possessive, pulling me in, clutching me to his body as if he was afraid I might go somewhere.

  I pulled back instinctively. It couldn’t have been more than ten seconds, maybe less. But my heart was pounding and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Every nerve in my body was lit up like the Fourth of July, and Landon was staring down at me like he was just as shocked as I was.

  “No,” I said. “You don’t get to do that—to just,” I pushed him back and moved away, waving my hand angrily. “You’re hiding something. I know you are. And if you think being an amazing kisser is going to make me forget about it?” I laughed mirthlessly.

  I really didn’t know what I wanted. I just knew I was angry. Angry that my grandpa couldn’t just pass away and let me handle the grief of losing him. He had to put this cruel twist to it all and send me on the most emotionally confusing journey of my life. And then Landon had to constantly tempt me with the promise that he might be some perfect guy, even though he was obviously keeping something from me.