Taking hold of her hand, I still it and lower it away from me. “How?”
Not faltering under my disinterested gaze, she says, “We’d start with a drink, or two.” She does demure well, though I see right through her. “I don’t live that far from here. I have a stocked bar.”
“What if we skipped the foreplay, and I fucked you right here in the elevator? Is that what you want?” Kate stands there staring at me with her red lips parted, but then she licks them slowly, trying to keep my attention. Her desperation for me makes the elevator hotter than it was a few floors up. When she reaches for the emergency stop button, I catch her wrist. “It was a question, not an offer.”
Her chest heaves, and she breathes out, “Yes. I’d let you fuck me right now in this elevator.”
I hold her gaze, but she’ll never replace what I had, what I tasted, what I felt when I was with Sara Jane. I’m fucked. The effect she had on my life still persists, still affecting every aspect, even ones she shouldn’t any longer. She left. She left me.
Backing across the elevator as if the devil himself knew playing with fire would get him burned, I look at this woman who is willing to give me anything, even her dignity, in exchange for a small piece of my fortune. I know that’s what she’s after. Sara Jane would have never lowered herself for wealth. Hell, she would barely let me buy her dinner.
Kate’s breathing is heard, even with distance, her fingers moving against the buttons of her shirt like she doesn’t know whether to take it off or button up. I’m about to tell her what she should do when the door opens, the ding heard loudly above. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m not single.” I walk out of this hotbox.
“I heard your girlfriend left you.”
My feet stop, the arrow she shoots right on target. Yes, my girlfriend left me. Those are the facts I’m having to face. She took my heart, my love, and my soul with her. I turn around and see hope in her eyes, as if her low blow will change my mind. “I misspoke. I’m not available.” I turn back and head for the waiting car. Climbing inside, I slam the door closed and nod to the driver to leave.
The sun has set and the lights outside are flashing through the dark-tinted windows that hide me inside. The media has been incessant in getting the story of my father’s death. As the head of a billion-dollar company, you don’t get to commit suicide without piquing the interest of many people. I hate the attention his death has brought, dragging my mother’s death back into the spotlight with him. And the worst thing is he took away my chance at justice for her murder. Even in death, he took away what had driven me for so long.
My life is now lived under a microscope. As much as it hurts that she left, it’s times like these that I’m glad Sara Jane got out. Taking my phone from my pocket, I call Cruise to check in.
“King.”
I don’t have time for conversation, so I get to the point. “Update me.”
“There’s action in the lower fourth. Chad thinks it’s the same guys who lead us to April, but I’m not sure. Could be the other guys.”
“The ones who kicked our asses?” I ask, followed by a chuckle that’s anything but amused.
“The very ones.”
“I wouldn’t mind meeting them in a dark alley again.”
“This time we’ll be prepared.”
“Set it up.”
“Already done.” He breaks character to ask, “How are you holding up?”
“The office is officially closed. I just left for the last time.” Looking at my watch, I sigh. “I have dinner with the transition team. As soon as it’s over, I’ll message you for the location.”
“I’ll be ready. And King?”
“Yeah.”
“No word today.”
“Me either.”
I hang up just as my car pulls up to the manor. It’s too quiet, the employees already gone or retired for the evening. It’s always too quiet now. I head up to my quarters, aware of the fact that what used to be my haven is now more like a tomb. The rest of the house is haunted with my father’s sins, but my bedroom is only haunted by Sara Jane.
My pockets are emptied on the silver tray on the coffee table and I flop down on the couch, exhausted. She would laugh at the tray and probably crack a joke asking where my matching spoon is. I lie back and close my eyes with a smile on my face . . .
Sara Jane smiles and my world is brighter for it. Leaning against my bike, I uncross my arms. I want to be ready for her when she reaches me.
Damn if her cheeks aren’t turning a deeper shade of pink as she approaches. My sweet girl. “Did you get it?”
She finally reaches me, her smile even bigger despite the rolling of the eyes. “You’re worse than my parents.”
“Hand it over.” She hands me the envelope. I open it and scan down. All A’s. “You’re so fucking smart.”
“Remember our bet?” she asks, her hand going to her hip.
I remember, but I think I might tease her just like I did by setting the bait that she bit hard. “What bet was that?”
“Oh noooo. You don’t get out of it. If I made straight A’s, you were taking me to your house.”
House . . . “About that—”
She pokes me in the chest. “A deal is a deal, Alexander.”
Grabbing her wrist, I stop her relentless poking and pull her closer for a kiss. “I’ll follow through.” I give her a wink. “I always do.”
We’ve been through a lot. She’s seen the side of me I’ve tried to hide, the side I was forced to share to hold on to her. And she’s still here despite how badly a night partying with my old schoolmates went. I vowed to myself to make it up to her. She wouldn’t say I needed to, but I do.
I went to talk to Cruise out back that night and came inside to find Lanie Monroe and her posse cornering Sara Jane. They couldn’t accept that it wasn’t that I didn’t want a girlfriend. It was that I didn’t want them.
I’m shit though. My father always told me I was, and I pushed her so far that I thought she would run, proving me right. She didn’t.
She stayed.
I just wonder if she’ll stay after coming to my house. She survived a dinner with my father once. That she stuck with me afterward says a lot, but I also managed to keep her away since. I get her wanting to find her place in my life. She just doesn’t realize the place she already fills. What place do I fill in her life?
“Do you ever talk to anyone from your high school?”
“Sure. Shelly and Chad.”
“Any guys I should be aware of?”
She laughs. “No. Why? Are you jealous?”
“Yes. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m a jealous fucker.” I hand her a helmet. “And when it comes to you, I’m not changing. Come on. Time to pay my debt.”
Riding back to the manor, I drive slower than usual, take the curves in the road a little more carefully. I always do when she’s riding with me. For someone who never liked me riding a bike, she urges me to go faster. I think she gets it now. Risking my life is one thing. Risking hers is a whole other.
I stop at the gate and punch in the code. She asks, “You have a code?”
“It opens the gate.”
“You have a gate? How big is this house?”