A Knock From The Past: (The Phoenix Series Book 1)

by Emma Vikes

  I gasped when I felt his lips on my neck, spinning around so quickly that my hair slapped his face. “Ow.”

  I stared at him wide-eyed and hissed, “What are you doing?”

  Art chuckled and then pressed his body against mine, making me lean away. The twinkle in his eyes already made me aware of what he wanted to happen. “I never got my breakfast with you this morning because you were in such a rush to pick up Lucas.”

  “Art, we’re at work!”

  He glanced at his office and at the rest of the floor and then turned his attention back to me. “They’re all busy, right now, Lily. We’ll be quick.”

  His smell was intoxicating and was already doing its job. His dark eyes stared at me with the hunger that always made me feel wanted. I didn’t stop him anymore when he began to kiss me open-mouthed and feverish like I was the oxygen that he desperately needed. I didn’t even stop him when he began to hike up my dress and pull down my panties.

  And of course, I didn’t stop him when he pushed his dick inside my pussy; I even moaned in delight.

  His strokes were quick and deep, and his mouth was on mine so I couldn’t scream and moan as loud as I always did. I reached my climax before he did and after he’d pulled himself out, he grabbed a paper towel from the holder and then handed some to me, grinning like a high-school kid.

  I realized I needed to clean myself up before I could head out of his office. That was just great.

  When I stepped out of the toilet, I expected the entire office to be peering at his office, their phones ready to snap my picture and then I might have been all over social media because, after all, everyone had a crush on the gorgeous tech businessman, Art Waters. But no one was watching us, and I was just imagining that everyone’s attention was on us.

  “Lily?” Art called my name, his head tilted to the side as he stared at me. He must’ve noticed my reaction or read the paranoia in my eyes. “Hey, I told you everyone was minding their own business.”

  I nodded slowly, letting that thought settle in my brain. Even before anything had happened between me and Art, rumors had already been flying around the office about the two of us. It wasn’t that I didn’t want them to talk about me - I couldn’t care less what they thought of me - it was just that I couldn’t shake the feeling that whoever the insider was or whoever was threatening Art, we just gave him or her the satisfaction that they wanted.

  If Art showed how much he cared about me - if he truly did - then it meant that they could get to me. I was already in trouble, I was putting myself more at risk because of that, and I didn’t know how to tell Art without sounding like I didn’t want anything to do with him. Because I wanted to be with him, don’t get me wrong on that part, I just didn’t want the situation to become worse.

  “Lily?”

  I snapped out of my thoughts and turned my attention to Art. “Yeah?”

  “You were spacing out.” The worry was clear in his dark eyes. “I won’t do it again if you’re not comfortable with what happened. I’ll wait until we’re alone at the apartment.”

  He was apologizing for wanting to have sex with me even if I wanted it just as badly as he did. I shook my head. “It’s okay, Art. I just thought of something irrelevant.”

  Slowly, he nodded, but it was clear in his face that he wasn’t buying what I’d just said. “Anyways, the charity event, it’s tomorrow night. You never really gave me a direct answer. But I hope it isn’t no because I already have a dress picked out for you.”

  I couldn’t stop the smile from gracing my face, all my worries evaporated with what he’d just said. I wanted to kiss him but I couldn’t, not there, anyway. “I’d love to be your date for the charity ball, Art. But the thing is, you sort of need my brother’s permission to take me.”

  He made a face. “I have a feeling your brother doesn’t even like me even when he hasn’t met me.”

  I chuckled. “Well, you’re not entirely wrong about that.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Art

  Lucas didn’t like me. It was certainly clear after the dinner we’d had last night. It was a good thing that Lily was just joking about getting his permission for the charity ball because I was pretty sure that he didn’t want me anywhere near his sister. It was also another good thing that he allowed Lily to change at my apartment - and also to spend the rest of the day with me after work - so that I could spend some time with her because having him around meant that our time together would have been shortened.

  “You know, I’m kind of regretting flying your brother here.”

  Lily laughed and then snuggled closer to me. It was 2 in the afternoon, and we were naked under my white sheets, waiting until the stylists came to help her get ready. I made sure that we were only at Interzone in the morning so I could have her all to myself come afternoon - before everyone else arrived, at least.

  “You just need to learn how to earn his approval. He’s my favorite brother. There’s a reason behind that. He’s the nicest out of the three of them.”

  I tried to put on a thinking face, and Lily burst out laughing and then hit my arm. I propped myself up with my hand and rested my head on it and looked down at her with a smile. “You’re beautiful, have I ever told you that?”

  The blush that crept on her face answered my question. Before she could say anything, someone knocked on the door, and I sighed, pulling on my sweatpants. As much as I wanted Lily to get help, they just ruined our alone time. I opened the door to a group of girls, and they marched inside my apartment, greeting me on their way inside.

  “Wow,” Lily mumbled as she arrived in the living room in a bathrobe. She looked at me with a pleasant surprise clear in her eyes. “You didn’t have to do this, Art.”

  “I want to make sure that everyone at the event knows that I have a masterpiece in my arms,” I replied with a wink, and I swear I heard some of the girls sigh. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as Lily narrowed her eyes at me, trying her best to hide her blush.

  “I’m going to take a bath first,” she announced, leaving the room while I directed the stylists to head over to the other spare room where I’d placed her dress. She hadn’t seen it yet, but I knew that it would look good on her.

  I tried my best to keep myself distracted while she was being pampered and cared for. The only thing I had to do was jump in the shower and put on my suit, which would take fifteen minutes, thirty if I slowed down. So to kill time, I decided to check my personal emails. I wasn't surprised that there were anonymous ones. If the enemy knew my personal number and how to get into my apartment, it wasn’t a surprise if he had my personal email. I decided to read the very recent one. It was sent yesterday.

  You can cut the unfazed act, Artie. I know I’m getting under your skin. I know that you and your girlfriend are trying to figure out who I am. I bet you have a list in your head of who I could possibly be. But I’m sure you’ll still be surprised when you figure it out.

  We’ll see each other soon, brother.

  Until then, keep guessing, Artie, none of them will be right.

  “Art?”

  I turned around to find Lily standing behind me. Her hair was pinned by bobby pins at the front, and she had curlers all over. She wasn’t done with her make-up yet, clearly. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready?”

  She sat beside me on the couch and placed a hand on my lap. “I needed a glass of water. I saw you staring at your phone with a murderous glare. He sent you an email?”

  I nodded and sighed, locking my phone and putting it away. “He’s saying that we won’t figure out who he is which is confusing. I’m sure he’s someone from our family. But I feel like this isn’t because I wasn’t able to kill the person my father asked me to, I think he has a different agenda.”

  Lily kissed my cheek and then reached for my hand to squeeze it. “We’ll figure this out, Art. But you have an event to be at tonight, and we can’t let this ruin the night for us, okay?”

&
nbsp; I kissed the tip of her nose, careful not to ruin her make-up and then watched her go to the kitchen to get herself a drink and then head back to the room where the stylists were. I decided to kill time by playing the latest game application that Interzone had designed and tried to see if there were more things I could update in it.

  Playing games always consumed a lot of time and I hadn’t realized I had just about an hour to get ready because one of the stylists informed me that that was all I had. I didn’t take long in the shower, and I got some help to put on my suit. I was back in the living room and waiting for Lily to come out of her room because the stylists were all so giddy for the reveal.

  When she came out, I almost didn’t recognize her.

  I already knew she was pretty after the first time I’d laid eyes on her, and every day that I saw her I thought she was freaking beautiful, but now that she was dressed and dolled up, I knew I had to make sure that every male in that event knew she was mine.

  “Say something, Art,” Lily mumbled as she stared at my face.

  I licked my lips and smirked at her. “I think we better stay here tonight because I’m not sure I could control myself if I saw any guy lay their eyes on you.”

  She rolled her eyes but blushed and turned away. “You don’t look too bad yourself, Waters.”

  I chuckled, paid the team of stylists and then proceeded to head to the basement where my car was parked. “No driver tonight?”

  Lily looked at me with questioning eyes, and I nodded. “I thought it’d be nice to pretend that this is a real date night and that I’m not a multi-millionaire who has people at his beck and call.”

  She rolled her eyes and then got into the car, strapping herself in with the seatbelt as she replied. “Kind of hard because we’re going to an event that only the filthy rich are invited to.”

  “Oh, and also I was wondering if you’re up for car sex?” I casually added as I peeled out of the parking space.

  Lily slapped my arm, hard.

  Her eyes were narrowed when I looked at her when we’d halted at a stop sign. “You’re kidding.”

  I grinned and shook my head. “C’mon, Lil, you said you wanted us to enjoy tonight, I’m only going to enjoy it if you agree to it. I know you were into it when we did it at the office or else you would’ve stopped me. But this time around, I’m going to give you a moment to really think about it before I try anything.”

  Lily was quiet for the entire ride until we were near the venue. I was going to stop the car at the valet when her hand flew up to my thigh, and she squeezed me tight. “Make sure you park in a dark corner, Waters.”

  I couldn’t explain the thrilling sensation that crept from my toes and ended at the top of my head as I zoomed out of the valet parking and tried to search for the dark corner that Lily had requested. I almost parked it crookedly because Lily’s hand was inching onto the fly of my pants and, just as I placed the car in park, her hand was already wrapped around my hardening dick.

  “Fuck. And here I thought you weren’t interested.”

  She chuckled and then crawled onto my lap. She was wedged against me and the steering wheel, and I knew how uncomfortable her position was but she didn’t seem bothered when her mouth crashed against mine, our teeth clashing and our tongues dancing in the familiar rhythm that our heartbeat provided.

  My right hand inched along her thigh while my left pulled down the front of her dress, giving me access to her breasts. “This is why I liked this dress.”

  “I knew you got it for that reason,” Lily murmured as her hands unbuttoned the top of my shirt. She didn’t try to strip me out of my clothing, knowing full well that it would just give us a hassle after we’re done with our quickie.

  I pulled down her panties, and I didn’t know how I managed to do it given our position. Our lips continued to collide, tongues continuing the dance as she positioned herself above my free dick and, without warning, came crashing down on me, the warmth of her pussy enveloping me immediately. I couldn’t stop the groan from coming out of my mouth as she quickly moved on top of me.

  I wanted to run my hands in her hair but had to restrain against doing so, knowing that I would ruin her appearance. “Open your eyes, Lily. Look at me.”

  Her blue eyes met mine, and I could see the burning desire and passion swirling in the blue pupils. It was as if her eyes glowed under the darkness we were both basking in. I placed my hands on her hips and slowed her down. I wanted to be inside her deeper and fill her even more. She clung to my neck as I continued to thrust myself deeper inside of her, her moans filled my ears, and they sounded like the softest music I’d ever heard in my entire life.

  I watched in fascination as she climaxed on top of me.

  Before I could pull out of her, she reached to the side and then handed me a napkin and winked. “Better clean ourselves up before we go inside.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle, and for the next ten minutes, we tried to make ourselves look presentable again and resist the urge to stay in the car and fuck each other senseless for the rest of the night. We finally managed to arrive at the event, and it was already in full swing. People talked to each other and laughed over champagne, with men flirting with other people’s dates.

  The latter made me hold Lily’s hand tighter, and she realized quickly why. “I’m not leaving your side, Art. I won’t talk to anyone or let anyone flirt with me. Stop being so paranoid. I didn’t peg you to be the jealous type.”

  I turned to her, and the corner of my lips pulled up into a smirk. “That’s because I’ve never had anything that was mine.”

  Something flashed in her eyes, and for a moment I thought she was going to ask if there was an official ‘us’. If she’d asked, I'd have given her an honest answer that I wanted us to happen. She opened her mouth, and I waited for the words, but none came out. Instead, we were being escorted to take our seats. We hadn’t even made our rounds to look at the art pieces being shown.

  “We have a very pleasant surprise for everyone tonight,” said Toby McIntosh. He was the host for this event. He was a very eccentric businessman who favored the arts which was why he managed to set up this entire gallery show. The pieces were from people he knew - artists he’d screwed with - and all sold for a very high price. He claimed that the money would go to the artist’s charity of choice, but I think the charity case was the artist himself.

  Tonight Toby wore a bright pink suit. His hair was white and all over the place, and he topped his look with transparent glasses that resembled the ones Lily used. She leaned close to me and whispered, “He looks like a madman.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “He’s even crazier once you talk to him.”

  I knew Toby because of Julian and Benton. Their fathers were good friends, and Toby claimed that he practically grew up with the Waters, which had been a lie, as Julian had told me. But Toby was a good friend, and Julian kept contact with him. He was also a very good business associate, and with just the right kind of negotiation, it wasn’t hard to strike a deal with him.

  “Wow, that’s gorgeous,” Lily commented when the third artwork was shown. I made a face. I wasn’t very much into art and couldn’t see the beauty that the rest of the audience - Lily included - admired in every art piece shown. “My mother would sure love that painting. Hey, I need to use the toilet, too much champagne.”

  She handed the waiter her finished glass as she stood up. I wanted to go with her, and I didn’t care if that made me clingy. I just wanted to make sure that she was safe. A weird feeling started to creep up on me the moment the auction had started, but I’d tried to take my mind off it. I was just being paranoid because of the email. I focused my attention on the bidding that was happening. We were at 1.2 million dollars.

  To be honest, the work didn’t look that amazing, but I raised my hand. I wasn’t sure why but the comment about Lily’s mother loving that painting had got to me. I was already trying to impress Lucas. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I
did like Lily and it wasn’t some feeling I could just shake away. Toby pointed in my direction.

  “2.4 million dollars.” I knew it was too much, but I couldn’t care less. I have way too much money to spend it all on myself anyway. Toby tried to raise my bid, but no one bothered to go against it and it was officially announced that it had been sold to me.

  “Now, ladies and gents, this next one is a personal favorite of mine. It was done by a very close friend.” There’s a huge smile on Toby’s face. He was excited; I could see it in the glimmer of his eyes. He cued the curtains to open, and he faced everyone with the biggest and most excited smile he could muster.

  But a collective gasp and a resounding scream were what he received in response.

  In front of us, on stage, was a man mutilated and murdered. He wasn’t bleeding, but he had been crucified on the canvas and painted in his own blood. Wide-eyed and shocked, everyone stared at the dead man in front of us until Toby registered what was going on and he looked at him himself. When he screamed, the lights went out.

  That was the trigger for the chaos that followed. I could feel everyone pushing and shoving each other to get to the exit, but I was trying to see in the dark to look for Lily. I called out her name, but instead of hearing her voice calling out to me, I heard someone else over the speakers, a voice that sounded so much like the one in the anonymous calls.

  “Oh, don’t be too scared, everyone. Actually, run for your lives. It’s refreshing to see people so confident in themselves be this frightened. Run, run, run everyone. Or you might end up crucified on your own canvas, drenched in your own pool of blood.” The screams of everyone almost drowned out the voice, but I heard his next statement loud and clear. “Oh, and dear brother Artie, you better saddle up on your white horse and save your princess. Who knows how long she’ll have.”