Siren in Bloom

Chapter Seven

She watched as Julian Lodge’s perfectly formed body wielded the whip. There was a crack through the air and a snap back, and then a thin, red line welled on the white flesh of Finn’s back.

Shelley took an unconscious step away from the stage and right into Wolf’s chest.

“Shhh, it’s all right, sweetheart,” Wolf whispered against her ear. “Finn loves this. From what I understand, Finn has been Julian’s submissive for years. They know what they’re doing and just what it takes for Finn to find his subspace.”

She gasped as the whip cracked again, the sound violent, like a snake striking from nowhere. She kept her voice low. “I don’t see how Finn isn’t screaming.”

“It sounds worse than it is.”

She looked over and Leo was standing right beside them. She thought he’d walked away, felt more comfortable with him walking away. But he was standing right there beside his brother, dressed almost identically. Two amazingly gorgeous men.

Yeah, if she hadn’t had ménage fantasies before, she sure as hell had them now. Why had she ever put that down on the questionnaire?

Because there was a part of her that wanted what Trev had found. Because there was a part of her that wanted the balance of two men just in case one of them turned out to be a criminally minded douchebag. Because she didn’t trust herself anymore.

And because the whole month she’d spent talking to Wolf, she’d had fantasies about Leo suddenly turning around and both men wanting her. But that was all it was, a fantasy.

“Don’t be afraid, sweetheart,” Wolf said, his arms encircling her. He was so protective, but could she really trust him?

“She isn’t afraid. She’s worried. That’s her worried face. Her brow wrinkles, and she gets this deep line right in the middle.”

Trust Leo to have noticed that.

“Sweetheart, we don’t have to play with the whip if you don’t want it,” Wolf assured her. “But you should know that what you hear, that cracking sound is something Julian controls with the flick of his wrist. Really look at Finn’s back. Julian is in complete control. That whip can be horrible if he handles it wrong. Or it can whisper across Finn’s back. It can bite with just the right side of pain. It can be what Finn needs it to be. Do you see any blood?”

She didn’t. There were several pink lines on Finn’s flesh, and now she could see the way he’d relaxed, his shoulders slumping and head lolling back. Finn seemed to be getting what he needed.

“He feels like you did when I spanked you.” Wolf’s voice was a deep rumble over her skin.

“You spanked her?” Leo sounded like Wolf had said he’d beaten the crap out of her.

Julian turned and stared back because Leo’s voice had carried through the dungeon.

“Sorry,” Leo said, holding a hand up.

Shelley felt Wolf move behind her as Julian turned back to his task. That crack split the air again, but she saw it differently now. The spanking Wolf had given her had been so different. It had changed her world.

Wolf leaned over behind her speaking to Leo. “She ignored certain key parts of our contract. She was assaulted, and she didn’t call me. I went to her place, and she was there with some fucking former SEAL mercenary shit.”

“Holder?” Leo asked the one-word question with a sort of hushed awe.

“Yeah, how did you know?” Wolf asked. “Wait. He called you, right?”

“Yes,” Leo replied. “Did you say she was assaulted? Get back here. We can’t talk up here.”

Shelley was pulled back, two arms on either of hers. She almost stumbled, but Wolf held her up. He finally cursed and shoved a bulky arm under her knees, hauling her against his chest. He followed his brother as Leo made his way through to the back of the crowd. Shelley could hear the whip crack again and again, Finn’s soft moans filling the air, making her believe he was enjoying the experience.

What would it be like to trust someone the way Finn trusted Julian?

“Explain.” One word, but Leo made it sound like a long Shakespearian speech.

“She had her laptop stolen on the train,” Wolf replied before she could get the words out. She was rapidly figuring out her response was not required.

“She was robbed?” Leo asked like he gave a damn. Logan had followed him, staying behind Leo like a properly trained lackey.

“Yes, I was,” Shelley managed, keeping her voice down because even she knew not to disrupt a scene. “Though the thief was an idiot because I bought that laptop bag at Target, and he had full access to a handmade Versace. I know which one I would have stolen.”

Wolf turned her toward him. “Are you sure about that? He could see it? He had access to something that was more valuable?”

Shelley nodded. “Yes, he stared at it. There’s no way he could mistake my bag as the more expensive one. That Versace was beautiful. Mine was beaten up. I shoved it on the floor. The leather is warped. It got wet. I was stupid and set it down in the rain when I was trying to unlock my car. I can’t replace it so it looks like hell.”

“So the only thing valuable was the laptop and it was visible?” Leo asked.

“No,” Shelley said quietly, well aware she was still in the middle of a scene. This couldn’t wait until later? “My laptop bag was big enough that I could close it.”

Wolf and Leo shared a long look.

“I’ll check into it,” Wolf said, his words sounding like a promise.

“Have you read her file?” Leo asked.

“I have a file?” Shelley wasn’t aware of it. Crap. She should have been. Julian Lodge looked like the kind of man who kept a lot of files.

“Of course,” Wolf replied. He turned back to Leo. “You think this is about her ex?”

Shelley’s skin went cold. What about her ex?

“No idea,” Leo answered. “But if someone is coming after her, I want to know what it’s about.”

“I’ll look into it,” Wolf promised.

“We’ll meet tomorrow at noon. Chase is one of the best hackers in the world. If someone has said anything about her on the net, Chase can find it. If some asshole wrote an e-mail about her, Chase can give it to you.”

“We’ll be there,” Wolf promised.

“I will?” Shelley asked.

“You will.” Wolf and Leo said the words at the same time with the same deep inflection.

“Fine.” She couldn’t fight both of them.

There was a long pause. She stared at the scene in front of her. She thought they were being overly protective, but then she hadn’t had anyone who was protective of her besides her brother in years. Maybe never since her father died. Bryce had married her for very specific reasons, and when those dried up, he’d ignored her.

“Did he hurt you?” Leo asked, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her around.

“No.” She looked into his face, stark and lovely. God, he was a beautiful man. “He didn’t touch me. He just took my bag.”

The whip cracked again. She turned her face back, but now she was a little flustered. Her heart was racing. Why had that man taken her bag when there was something much more valuable in his grasp?

Had it been random? Why wouldn’t it be random? What could she have that someone really wanted? She was living hand to mouth. She’d lost all of the property she’d owned with Bryce.

“Hey, calm down,” Wolf ordered, his voice commanding her. “We’re going to handle it.”

Leo watched her for a moment. “She sometimes has anxiety attacks, nothing serious, but she can get herself very worked up. If you don’t talk her down, she’ll be anxious for hours. Shelley, why don’t we all go up to my office and we can talk about what’s making you nervous?”

Now Leo was making her nervous. God, the last thing she wanted was to become one of Leo’s patients.

“I think I can handle this, brother,” Wolf said, taking her hands in his.

Leo’s eyes narrowed. “And I think I’m the one with the degree in psychology.”

“She’s my sub, Leo. Now let me handle her in the way I see fit.”

Leo stood, his arms across his chest, and Shelley worried for a moment that he was going to argue with Wolf.

“I want to stay with Wolf.” She looked up at Leo. This was the longest conversation they’d had in fourteen months, and instead of being her friend, he wanted to be her shrink. She didn’t want that. She wanted what Wolf could give her.

Leo took a step back, his disengagement clear. “Of course. Come along, Logan. We still have work to do.”

The two men walked away, losing themselves in the crowd.

“Come on,” Wolf said, pulling her back toward a corner of the room. She could still see the stage, but it was slightly darker away from the lights. Wolf settled his big body on a chair that had been shoved into the corner. “Sit down. We’re going to talk for a minute. What’s your safe word?”

She needed a safe word to talk? “Gucci. I have to find a chair. Hold on.”

His hand came out to pull her to him, settling her on his lap. She was surrounded by him, his arms encircling her waist, the warmth of his chest touching her skin. “Did you do as I asked?”

“What did you ask?” She had to put her arms around his neck for balance.

Wolf’s hand was on her knee. “I gave you some very specific grooming instructions.”

Oh, god. She shivered. He was talking about her pussy. She’d thought about him the whole time she’d been in the shower. She hadn’t been able to think about anything else. She’d carefully shaved her mound, pulling the lips of her pussy apart and gingerly running the razor over her flesh. Every stroke of the razor had sensitized her skin. “Yes, Sir.”

“Let me feel. Spread your legs.”

She swallowed, hesitating. “But there are people here.”

His voice came out in a hard grind. “I don’t care, Shelley. And neither will they. Now spread your legs and let me feel your pussy, or use your safe word.”

It didn’t exactly seem fair, but she’d known it would be this way going in. She could choose to obey or this particular portion of her evening would be over. And she wasn’t sure she wanted it to be over.

Shelley took a deep breath. She was either in and willing to explore or she should walk away. She’d been so passive when it came to Bryce because she wasn’t willing to fight. She wanted to be done with waiting for something to happen to her. Wolf was giving her a choice. This wasn’t some passive activity. She had to make the decision.

She spread her knees. She looked around, trying to see if anyone was watching.

“Stop it,” Wolf said, his hands tightening. “You’re not to worry about them. You’re going to focus on me. Now, I gave you instructions, and I intend to find out if you followed them or if you’re going to get another spanking.”

She wouldn’t mind the spanking, but in this case, she’d been a very good girl. And despite the fact that it had made her uncomfortable, she’d only put on the clothes Wolf had given her. And he hadn’t given her a pair of underwear.

He kept one arm wrapped around her waist, and the other found her knee. He forced it to open further. She could feel the cool air on her flesh. A little thrill went through her. She’d never done anything like this, but she’d dreamed of it. In her darker fantasies, she’d been placed on display and touched and admired. Bryce had told her she was a freak when she’d mentioned her desires to him.

But she didn’t want to think about Bryce. She wanted to think about Wolf’s hand on her thigh.

“Tell me something, sweetheart.” Wolf’s voice was thick and dark, his lips tickling her ear. “Are you thinking about what happened now?”

So this was Wolf’s version of therapy. She had to admit, she preferred Wolf’s hands on her to sitting in Leo’s office. “Not anymore.”

And she was calmer. Oh, her heart was racing, but her mind wasn’t now. Her mind was on one thing—the hand that was doing a slow slide up her leg. He’d started at her knee, his fingers skimming the soft flesh of her inner thigh.

“Good. I don’t want you to worry about it. If you’re still scared, I’ll sleep on your couch or I’ll talk to Julian and get you a room here for the night.”

“I’m fine, Wolf.” She sighed as his hand reached the top of her thigh, pushing back the little skirt, leaving her pussy on full display. From Wolf’s vantage point, he couldn’t see it, but other people could. “He just took my laptop. He was an asshole criminal. I was due a new laptop anyway.”

And now, with Wolf’s fingers starting to tease their way toward her pussy, it didn’t seem so ominous. Not everything was about Bryce Hughes and his crimes. Some bad crap just happened because it happened. She’d done what she needed to do. She’d called the police and filed the proper reports. Worrying about it now would do nothing but bring her misery.

And she had better things to do.

“Do you want me to stop?” Wolf asked, his voice low and teasing as though he knew what her answer would be.

“No.” She shifted her legs open. That damn skirt was in the way.

He taunted her, brushing his fingers against her pussy. Soft, tantalizing, tormenting. He made small circles with his fingers. “I’m glad. One of the fantasies you indicated on your contract was public exhibition.”

“I just said I was curious.” And now she was pretty sure she was deeply curious.

“Someone’s watching.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Tell me if you want me to stop.”

She felt eyes on her. She lifted her face and saw who was watching her.

Leo.

Leo stood at the edge of the crowd, his back to the stage. Julian was working Finn over. No one else was paying a bit of attention to her, but Leo seemed laser focused in.

“Don’t stop.” If Leo wanted to watch her, then she would let him. He’d proven he could compartmentalize. So could she. In the dim light of the dungeon, she could still see the way his eyes latched on to her.

“Tell me something, love,” Wolf said, his fingers finally moving into her labia. “In all those weeks we talked, did you ever touch yourself while you were thinking about me?”

She sighed and relaxed in Wolf’s arms, her eyes never leaving Leo’s. She felt like there was an odd connection to him in that moment, like an invisible rope crossed the space between them. “Yes. Wolf, you know my past. I’ve had two lovers in my life. My high school boyfriend and my husband. And I hadn’t slept with Bryce in over a year before he died. I’m afraid I touch myself a lot.” She frowned. “Well, I did until some bossy man told me I couldn’t anymore.”

He chuckled behind her, and she gasped when he stroked her clit. His fingers moved easily against the flesh of her pussy. She was so wet. She had gotten soft and moist as she stood there watching Finn Taylor take his Master’s whip.

“Well, now you don’t have to touch yourself. I’ll do it for you.” Wolf slipped a single finger into her pussy, rotating and stretching her.

Her eyes met with Leo’s. There was no way to mistake the erection he was sporting. Leo’s leathers had tented, but he didn’t make a single move to cover himself up. He merely watched, his gorgeous face stony.

“So you never slept with my brother?”

The question brought her out of the sensual haze Wolf was weaving. “No. I never slept with Leo.”

Just that one perfect kiss when she almost forgot all of her pure reasons for walking away from him. When Leo had kissed her, she’d nearly sunken into him as though she could bind their flesh together. One perfect kiss and then it was all over.

“Because the way he’s looking at you makes me think he wants you badly.” Wolf’s voice had turned serious, but he never let up on the slow slide of his fingers.

It was getting harder and harder to think. Leo was watching while his brother finger-fucked her. God, Leo could see her pussy. What was she doing? Why was she doing it?

“Do you want to come?” Wolf asked.

How long had it been since she’d come? Had she ever really? Her sexual life had consisted of a “too green to know what to do” boyfriend and her husband, who didn’t really care whether she’d enjoyed the experience or not. For the longest time, she’d decided that sex was a lie perpetrated by men. It was severely overrated, and then Leo had kissed her.

And she’d wanted. Really wanted. She’d felt like a hormonally crazed teenager—the way she had before life and all its little miseries had beaten her down. She’d wanted, and she’d known that she just might get what she’d wanted.

Wolf was offering her that. Weeks of talking to him had given her a sense of intimacy. The contract they’d signed gave her both peace that everything was out in the open and confidence that Wolf wanted this, too.

“Make me come,” she said. She wanted. She wanted to want.

There was a hard pinch to her clit, and she nearly screamed at the sensation. It wasn’t pain exactly. It sparked from her pussy and sizzled out across her flesh.

“Do you talk to your Dom that way?” The question was whispered into her ear, but there was no way the volume of his voice softened the words. They were harsh, a nasty, dirty, sexy threat.

Oh, yeah, she was beginning to understand just how much of a freak she was, and the crazy thing was, she was perfectly fine with it. For the first time in years, it felt like her eyes were open wide and the world was hers for the taking.

“No.”

He slapped her pussy, an open-handed smack that had her yelping even as her pussy became drenched with juice. “What do you call me? You’re going to have to learn some manners, love. What do you call me when my fingers are in your cunt? What do you call me when my hand is smacking your ass? What are you going to call me when my cock is halfway up that pretty asshole you have?”

“Sir.” She couldn’t get the word out fast enough. “Sir. I call you Sir. Please forgive me.”

As much as she’d like the spanking, she wanted to come. She wanted those big fingers deep inside her, fucking her cunt.

And she wanted Leo to watch. God, his eyes on her were making her crazy. She looked up.

Wolf chuckled. “Yes, love, he’s still watching. If he doesn’t come in his leathers, I’ll let you spank me.”

She laughed a little at the thought of big, strong Wolf taking his pants down and offering up his ass.

Wolf’s hand pulled the skirt up roughly, forcing it around her waist. No question now. She was on display. Her current Dom was displaying her to the man she’d loved. Wolf was showing off her pussy, his fingers gliding in and out, wet with her cream. Leo was watching unabashedly, his cock straining against his leathers. And she was writhing in pleasure, her legs spread, giving Wolf access and Leo a better view. It was decadent. It was perverted. It was the single most erotic experience of her life.

“Come on,” Wolf commanded. “If big brother wants a show, we can give him one.”

She gasped as he impaled her on two big fingers. He slid his thumb over her clit, making tight little circles as he scissored his fingers open and closed deep inside her pussy. Her heart raced. She could feel the blood pumping through her body, a pounding rhythm that was leading to one and only one conclusion.

“Think about it, Shelley. That’s my cock. Deep inside you. I’m fucking you so hard you can’t tell where you stop and I start. You can’t get your legs open far enough because you want to take all of me. And I want to give it to you. I want to feel the hot clasp of that pussy milking my cock. Fuck, baby, I won’t ever have felt anything as hot as your pussy. You’re going to rock my damn world. I won’t ever want to stop fucking you.”

His words dripped like honey over her, getting her as hot as his fingers working her flesh did.

“You’re fucking gorgeous, little sub of mine. I’m going to train you to come for me. I’ll be able to look at you and your pussy will flutter because you’ll know just how long and hard I can fuck you. I’m going to be the man who gives you what you need. You come for me. I want to feel your pussy clamping down on my fingers. I want to feel it all the way in my cock.”

His fingers curved up, and his thumb rubbed in perfect time. Shelley exploded in a beautiful song of pleasure. His fingers made the music, his voice the words that sent her over the edge. She shook, quaking in his arms, his hands the only real thing in the whole world.

Wolf’s hands and Leo’s eyes. Through her pleasure she could see Leo still watched, his fists clenched at his sides, his jaw a strong, firm line.

“Perfect, love.”

Her skin tingled. She could feel Wolf’s lips nuzzling the back of her neck as he petted her pussy, bringing her down slowly and with a piercing sweetness. She’d promised herself she would take it slow with Wolf, but now she couldn’t help the fact that she felt so close to him. She leaned back, reveling in his gentle care. It was just as nice as the orgasm, this touching and his light kisses.

“What do you say now, love?”

She knew what he wanted and was more than willing to give it to him. “Thank you, Sir.”

“You’re welcome. And I think big brother definitely ruined those leathers of his, though I’m sure he’ll keep a stoic look on his face and politely excuse himself. See, I’m different. I’m going to tell you and anyone else who asks that I came like a fucking teenager. You were so hot, my cock couldn’t handle it.”

She stifled a laugh. He was so ridiculously open that it made her comfortable with everything happening between them. “You’re so different than what I expected.”

He stopped, his hands stilling on her flesh. “You expected someone like Leo.”

Fuck. She didn’t want to open that can of worms. But honesty was the best policy. And who did he think his brother was anyway? “Wolf, you remind me of Leo, of the Leo I first met. He was funny and sweet and he made me laugh. He could laugh at himself. I turned him into this cold man. I didn’t mean to, but I did and I can’t fix it.” She sat up, regretting the loss of intimacy although this talk was close to her heart. She’d spent weeks pouring out her fantasies to this man and listening to his in return. She wasn’t going to lose him over a love affair that had never gotten off the ground.

She wanted a relationship with Wolf. God, that was a relief. She felt a smile cross her face.

“What?” Wolf asked.

“Kiss me. Yes, I’m being aggressive, and you can spank me later, but it occurs to me that you’ve spanked my ass and had your hand up my pussy, but you’ve never kissed me. I want you to kiss me, Sir.”

His lips curved up. “Maybe I want you to kiss me.”

He was so stinking gorgeous. What the hell was she doing here sitting on his lap with her skirt around her waist? Her pussy was sopping wet, but he didn’t seem to care. He was a huge hunk of man with no sexual inhibitions and a seeming desire to be with her and her alone. She wasn’t a fool. Leo, for all the longing glances, had still kept his distance.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She felt him tremble just before she touched him and realized that despite the fact that he’d put her on display, this small intimacy meant something to him. He was serious. At least that was how it felt.

She kissed his lips, softly molding hers along the seam. She reached up and cupped Wolf’s face with her hands, feeling the bristles of his five-o’clock shadow. She kissed his mouth, thrilled with the fact that he was letting her explore. He would almost always take the lead, she knew that, but she thought he needed this. He needed to be the one being worshipped. And maybe he would like a few words, too. He had the filthiest, sexiest mouth she’d ever had the pleasure of listening to.

“This is my mouth on yours, but when you command it, Sir, I’ll put my mouth on your cock.”

“Fuck, Shelley. Are you trying to make a man crazy?”

The very fact that she could feel his cock twitching against her thigh sent a thrill through her. How many times had she wondered if she just wasn’t a sexual creature? That she lacked what other women had? But the Meyer brothers had shown her differently.

She brought her tongue out, licking across his plump bottom lip, his every shudder making her bolder than she’d ever dreamed of being. “I’ll lick it, Sir. I’ll start at the tip and then make my way to the base of your cock before starting back up. I’ll make sure to not miss an inch. And I’ll lick your balls, sucking them in my mouth.”

His tongue surged in, and he took over the kiss. He sank his hand into her hair, and the kiss went from sweet to carnal.

His tongue dominated, sliding against hers. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into the cradle of his body. She felt cool air on the flesh of her ass. Her skirt was still around her waist, but she didn’t care. Nothing mattered in that moment except the feel of Wolf’s lips against hers and the wild caress of his tongue. She was ready to take him then and there, but he finally pushed her gently back, his kisses going soft and sweet once again.

“Thank you, love. I needed that.” He sighed deeply and pulled her close, cuddling her against him. “So can we safely move this from a test drive to a real training relationship? I know we signed the contract, but it feels more real now, doesn’t it?”

Her heart skittered. It would mean a collar and a commitment. It wasn’t a commitment to love and honor forever, though “obey” would definitely be in the wording. It was a commitment to try. It was serious. It was what all those late-night conversations and flirty texts had been leading to. There was a two-week trial written into their contract, but Wolf seemed impatient.

It meant accepting a collar from him.

It meant giving up on Leo forever.

But maybe it meant betting on herself this time. Wolf Meyer was everything she could want in a man. Their chemistry was sizzling. Leo had been a dream, but Wolf was a stunning reality that might be great if she just took the chance.

“Yes, Sir.”

She was rewarded with a brilliant smile that made him look years younger. “I’m glad. That’s awesome. I mean it. I knew it would work out.” He kissed her again, a hard, affectionate peck, and then she squealed a little as he playfully smacked her ass. “On your feet, love. I need to go change.”

She stood on her wobbly feet, pushing her skirt back down. Now she noticed that Julian was tending to his partner, his hands rubbing their way across Finn’s back. Several people seemed to have realized there was more than one scene being played out in the dungeon. Yep. Strangers had watched her getting off on her boyfriend’s lap.

Wolf was her boyfriend. God. She had a boyfriend. She hadn’t had a boyfriend in ten years. She’d had a piece-of-crap husband but no relationship she would even vaguely call affectionate.

Except her friendship with Leo. She looked across the room, and he still stood watching. She gave him a little smile. He would always have a place in her heart. He’d given her the strength to break free. He’d been the thing she was striving for as she’d fought her way back to life. And he’d given her the keys to find what she needed.

His face changed, going from stony to sad in an instant as though he recognized that what they had was now irrevocably changed.

“Hey, babe,” Wolf said, getting her attention. “Great scene. Let’s go get cleaned up and grab a beer.” He held his hand up.

And her boyfriend proved he was a very silly man. She gave him what he wanted. A damn high five. He’d high-fived her in appreciation of her sexual services.

She caught sight of Leo, smacking his forehead with his hand and shaking his head.

She couldn’t help but smile. At least Wolf Meyer wasn’t perfect. He grabbed her hand and with a wink led her out of the dungeon.

“I want the bitch dead,” a feminine voice said, pulling him away from his thoughts.

Mitchell Cross sighed as his wife walked in the room. He leaned back over and finished the line he’d started, the cocaine just beginning to work in his system. “I’m handling it, Brenda.”

Brenda had started losing her looks years before, but she’d fought it with every dime Cross had. God, her fucking plastic surgeon was one of the reasons he’d been forced to make deals with men like Steve Holder.

Brenda huffed a little. “You’re not doing anything, Mitchell. You’re pathetic. It’s just like everything else. I end up having to do it all myself. Did you use it all? Or do you have a stash for that whore you call an intern?”

He sighed. He actually was keeping a little for Stephanie. She was so much more willing to go down on him when she’d had a little snort. But between his dick getting some happy action and being forced to listen to his wife harp on him, his dick always lost. “It’s in my desk.”

Brenda’s expression never changed. That wasn’t surprising. She had enough Botox running through her system that Cross was pretty sure he could stab her and she would still have that blank, wide-eyed look on her face as she went down, her trout lips still in a slight smile because they didn’t move anymore, either. She pulled out the small plastic bag quick enough.

“What are you waiting for? If you kill that bitch decorator, everything will be over. We won’t have to worry about that damn tape coming out.”

He wasn’t even sure there was a fucking tape. But the timing was right. If there was even the possibility that the tape could get leaked, he had to take the chance and eliminate the threat. “I told you I’ll handle it. It’s been fourteen months. If she was going to come after us, she probably would have already.”

Brenda snorted the cocaine, the nasal sound turning Cross’s stomach. When she came back up, she sniffled and massaged her nose. The nose had work done on it, too. One of these damn days it was going to fall off, and he’d be charged with buying her another one. “I wouldn’t have come after you.”

“Why do you say that, dear?” God, he wanted to be alone. Her voice had started to haunt his dreams, and he couldn’t get rid of her. She still played well to his constituency.

“I would have waited. Look, Mitchell, if you think about it for two seconds, it makes sense. She had a lot of heat on her after that drug lord took her husband out. She was lucky someone was willing to pay for a lawyer because the way I understand it, the feds came in and froze all of her assets. She still hasn’t gotten most of it back.”

“Yes, so the bitch needs money.” And it would make sense to come after his since he’d paid her husband so quickly to stop the release of his little sex tape. “She would have come after us.”

Brenda shook her perfectly coiffed head. “With all those agents still looking at her? I don’t think so. I would have waited until some of the heat died down. That woman had the press all over her. When was she supposed to set up a new blackmailing circle? Not if she has a brain in her head. She got off. She was probably nervous, but I doubt she’ll stay that way for long. When everything calms down, we’ll get one of those nasty e-mails.”

God, he hoped she was wrong, but she made sense. “We don’t even know the tape exists.”

“And we don’t know it doesn’t. Obviously the feds don’t have it or you would be in jail, dear. They might not give a damn about your two-inch cock, but they would care about the fact that you accepted a half a million dollars to push a contract for security through the committee. They would damn straight care that those men are using their role in security to run drugs and blood diamonds out of Africa.”

Nausea rolled in his stomach. He could see the tabloid headlines. He could see the arrest warrants. How was he going to pay the blackmail on this? He was rapidly running out of money and there wasn’t an upcoming election where he could milk his constituents for funds. That was a year away. He was fucked.

He was fucked. God. He was going to go to prison.

“You’re going to prison.” Brenda sounded almost excited at the prospect. There was still a little line of white powder on the desk. She scraped it up with her manicured finger and indelicately spread it on her gums.

“Well, maybe you should switch to the cheap stuff, darling,” he said, venom dripping from his tongue. “Because if I end up in jail, you won’t have a dime to your name.”

“Daddy’s company still pays me well,” she said with a sigh. “Still, I wouldn’t like to think about what this little scandal would do to the family name. We have children, you know.”

They had two piece-of-shit boys who could barely spell their own names, much less keep out of trouble. They were utterly worthless, but they were somewhat attractive and looked good on the yearly Christmas photo. He had his family-friendly photo op with them once a year and then he was able to happily send their asses back to boarding school.

Which he also wouldn’t be able to pay for if this decorator bitch decided to milk him for cash he didn’t have.

“I’m taking care of it.” Brenda’s words dropped like a ticking bomb.

“What have you done?” Cross asked, considering for the first time if he wouldn’t be better off without her. Sometimes accidents happened, after all. Sometimes a poor woman with a hidden addiction got some bad coke and overdosed. A grieving husband made for good news.

“I handled it,” she repeated.

Fuck a god damn duck. He stood and took her by both shoulders, shaking her. Even through the Botox, he was able to see some small amount of fear in her eyes. “You tell me what you did.”

She pulled away, trying to straighten her designer dress. “I hired someone to take care of it. That bitch is going to meet a few nice men tonight. I’ve had them tracking her for a couple of days. The minute she leaves that building she works in, she’s not going to be a problem anymore.”

She was going to fuck everything up. “I already put someone on this.”

“And he’s taking too long. You talked to that asshole days ago and she’s still out there. My guys are going to move fast. They are being paid to go through her apartment and find what we need, then they’re going to kill her and the problem will be solved and we don’t have to worry about it ever again.” She reached for a cigarette, lighting it with some designer lighter that had probably cost him more than a fucking car. “Now run along, Mitchell. I’ve handled it. I think if you hurry, you can catch Stephanie before she finishes for the day.”

He stared at her. God, he hated her. She’d taken his balls long ago, and he couldn’t fucking look at himself in the mirror because all he could see was the man she’d made of him.

And yet, if Shelley McNamara Hughes really was dead, maybe it would be the end of the problem and then he wouldn’t need Steve Holder anymore.

He turned away from his wife with a sigh. Maybe sweet twenty-one-year-old Stephanie could take his mind off his troubles.