Sexual Persuasion (24 page)

“Do I really do something to you?” Alex asked, questioning the first line of the song.

Charlotte nodded as she unbuttoned her blouse, one slow button at a time, letting it fall off her shoulders to the floor. Then the skirt slithered down, and she stepped out of it.

Alex’s eyes were riveted on her.
 “And do I mystify you?”

“Oh, yes. Totally,” she said. “You’re the most mystifying man I’ve ever known.”

She stripped down to her panties and bra, rolling her hips to the slow, sensual beat of the music. The panties came off first, and she kicked them out of the way.

Alex lay watching, alert now.
A smile quirked his lips. She removed her bra and tossed it onto Alex’s stomach with a dramatic flourish and noticed his slacks slowly tent. She stood naked before him.

The combination of Cole Porter’s lyrics and music combined with Ella Fitzgerald’s mellow voice had a stimulating effect on
Charlotte too. The music took over, and she fell into the moment, swaying, twirling her fingers around her areolae, exciting her sensitive nipples to arousal. She’d never done anything like this before, and she was enjoying every erotic second of her blatant exhibitionism.

“I have to say, you’re the one with the power to hypnotize,” Alex said. “In fact, I’m completely in your thrall.”

She noticed his quite obvious erection now.

“Do you know how magnificent you look with the copper sunset coming through the windows and candlelight reflecting off the contours of your body? How the creamy white of your breasts is tinted in glorious color?”

“How poetic, Alex. Now enjoy.” She undid the clasp holding back her hair, then shook it to cascade softly to her shoulders. “How am I doing?”

Alex’s gaze wandered from her
face to her chest to her trimmed mound and down to her toes. He wriggled on the sofa. “I’m wide-awake.”

He started to say something else, but she moved within his reach and put a finger to his mouth. “
Shh.” Lowering onto her knees, she slipped the first button of his shirt through the buttonhole with a slow, deliberate motion, then the next and the next, until she peeled his shirt from his body. She kissed his bare chest, sucking his nipples, working them with her tongue. He made a move to touch her, but she warned him off. He lay still as she removed the rest of his clothes. Her gaze lowered, and she smiled at the obvious success of her performance. His eager cock stood fully erect.

“This song is perfect because I am under your spell,” Alex said.
“Completely and willingly.”

She straddled him and rubbed his leaking cockhead around her pussy. He got into position and, with his hands on her ass, eased into her with the same slow rhythm as the music.

“You’re very wet,” he said.

“I’m very excited.”

His cock reached deep inside her womb, stimulating the beginning of her orgasm. She marveled at his control. No violent thrusts this time, only the rolling of his hips as he hummed the song along with Ella. The music set the pace, and he kept it slow and steady, controlling the tempo. His hands moved to her hips, rocking her in and out. Then he touched the tips of her nipples so delicately that the erotic sensation shot hard to her clit. Sweat seeped from her pores as the orgasm built. Alex still kept his eyes on hers, only now a smile twitched his dampened lips as his fingertips went from a whisper touch to harder pinching. Her pussy trembled with need, and the surge of her orgasm rumbled from deep inside her. Alex closed his eyes and made a sexy groan in his throat. She felt his hot fluid shoot inside her at the same time she came. She ground her pussy against him, keeping to the rhythm of the music until both had given everything they had to the other.

She melted into him. Her heart thumped its excitement as she panted for breath. “Porter really knew how to write those love songs, because the words were perfect. You really did do something to me that no one else could do.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “Did I?”

She sighed. “You have no idea.”

“I liked your striptease. It woke me up.”

A brief vision of Gianni Caravelli flitted through her mind. If he was the “
Johnny” in Alex’s past, the two men must have made some pair. The kind of couple that would make a heterosexual woman say,
What a waste
. But she wouldn’t bring up the subject. Alex had bared his soul, told his secrets, and shared his life. He trusted her, and now she would trust him.

“As much as I’d like to spend the night with you,” he said, “I’d better go home and get some sleep. I’m already tired, and there are still a couple of things to tie up for my morning meeting before I can hit the sack. Let’s grab a quick bite at the Thai place. Then I’ll go. Do you mind?”

“Of course not. I’ll miss you, though. I’m getting used to sleeping next to you.”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Then he voiced the Terminator’s classic line: “I’ll be back.” And they both laughed.

* * * * *

Alex drove home in a haze of thought. He dreaded tomorrow on so many levels.
First, the business with Jack and Max. His plan of how to settle the problem with Jack made him uncomfortable. Yes, he’d bent the law in the past, always keeping those tricky things he’d done barely this side of legal. A smart attorney could make it go either way, and he was a smart attorney. This time he’d broken the law, flagrantly, and more than once. Something he’d vowed never to do. Worse, he’d brought others into the theft, putting their futures and lives at risk.

Then he thought of the meeting he’d chosen to keep from
Charlotte. He doubted she’d understand. After seventeen years, he didn’t understand it himself. Maybe he should have told her. He hoped he’d never have to, because it pointed out cold, hard truths about him. Truths he didn’t want to face. But tomorrow he’d be forced to face them straight on. With the man who had changed his life and the way he loved.

The Gamble Pays Off

Alex got to Harbor House early. The doors were unlocked, and one of Max’s people manned the entrance. They didn’t start serving until eleven thirty, so the place was empty. Max was at his usual table reading the newspaper. A cup of coffee and one of Harbor House’s signature pecan rolls sat in front of him. Alex tossed the sack on the table containing the two DVDs they removed from the recorders, plus all the evidence Jeannie Day had stolen from Davidson’s safe. He poured a cup of coffee from the carafe the chef set up on the sideboard. Max was flipping through the papers and photos when Alex sat down.

“Jesus, these are dynamite. That asshole is worse than I imagined.”

“My conclusion too. You should see the old tapes, DVDs, and the one we recorded last night of him and your friend Cord.”

Max laughed. “I bet that’s one for the triple-X flicks.” He searched Alex’s face. “I thought you were kidding when you said you were going after these.
So not your style. How’d you get them?”

“No need for you to know. Do you trust me to clean this up?”

“Depends.”

“I think you’ll be happy as far as settling with Davidson, but I want you and Branigan to quit your arrangement. It’s too risky. If Emily Fallon decides to drop a
word about what you’re doing to the authorities out of revenge, you two won’t want to have any business together. In fact, I’d tell Branigan to pay her off. Let her keep the damn sports car, the ring, something, or else she could be serious trouble. Break up all your offshore companies. Get the money out from wherever you’ve stashed it. If you still have properties, no matter how well they’re hidden, sell them off; get rid of them. Now. I don’t care how you do it. Don’t wait any longer for the developers. I assume you’ve already made a small fortune. See that they’re untraceable when you unload them. In other words, Max, close down shop. If the authorities know what they’re looking for, they’ll find it. I’ll help if you want. That’s my advice, which is what you pay me the big bucks for. Not that you always take it.”

“Doing what you suggest would cost us a lot of money.”

“Prison would cost you your life.”

Max twisted his mouth into a thoughtful pose.

Alex drank his coffee, put down his cup, and took a deep breath. “This will be my last transaction for Carpathian Enterprises. Jack Davidson is a slug, and I’m tired of dealing with slugs.”

“You’re quitting?”

“Yes.”

“Why? It’s the woman, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s me. I want out.”

“Am I a slug too?”

“You’re my friend, but I’ve closed my eyes to a lot of what goes on by pretending I don’t know about it, and I’ve bent the law without breaking it. Until this week when I did. I have a pretty good idea what would have happened to Davidson if I didn’t get my hands on his smoking gun. I would have acted like I didn’t know, but I’d’ve known.”

“So what are you going to do, join legal aid? Become a rights advocate? Come on. You like the nice life, the money. All that won’t be easy to turn your back on.”

“I’ve made enough money. Good investments, retirement funds, a few other things. I’ll be fine. I want out. I feel I’ve more than paid back your father’s investment over the years.”

Max nodded, a slow come-to-reality nod that Alex had seen before.

“You’re sure,” Max said. “You’ll be hard to replace.”

“There are a hundred attorneys who’d be happy to step into my shoes. And many won’t close their eyes to the majority of what you do.”

“So it is the woman. What is it? The house in the burbs with a white picket fence, two point two kids, and a dog?”

“Probably not, but it has no impact on what I’m doing today, if that’s what I decide.”

Max fingered the photos. “What are you going to do with these, or are they mine?”

“They’re mine. I paid for them. I just wanted you to know who you’re dealing with.”

“You or Davidson?”

Alex paused, thought. “Both, I guess.”

“We’ve been friends a long time, and you’re still full of surprises. But I trust you. If you didn’t come up with a solution to Davidson, he’d probably have disappeared. But you don’t want to know that.”

Alex didn’t answer.

Max’s man stood at the table, waiting to be acknowledged. Max looked up.

“Boss, there’s a guy at the door, says his name’s Davidson. Should I let him in?”

After a knowing glance at Alex, Max said, “Let him in, Gino.” He turned back to Alex. “The ball’s in your park. You better be right that I’ll be happy.”

Alex wanted to say,
Or what?
But he let the comment pass. Davidson approached the table and took a seat without waiting. He licked his dry lips. He was nervous, and so he should be. Alex had set him up and stripped him naked. Davidson extended his hand to Max but not to him. His eyes rested on the photos and the contents of the sack. If looks could kill, the slivered eyes Davidson centered on Alex would send a knife through his heart.

“That’s my property,” Davidson said, pointing at the papers and photos. “
Andros stole them.”

“Prove it,” Max answered.

Davidson’s face reddened. “What do you want?”

“My money,” Max answered. “Money you owe me. And the longer you don’t pay, the more in debt you are. If you were planning on using this smut to blackmail people so you could pay me off, you’d better forget it.” Max leaned forward, focused on Davidson. “Can you pay up or not, Jack?”

“You know I can’t. I can’t even pay your goddamn loan-shark vig.” He glared at Alex. “And don’t try to hoodwink me with that bogus IOU. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know you can’t go into court with that. It’d be a toss-up who gets the longest jail sentence.”

“You’re right. But I have film of you signing it.
Film of Max telling you to read the small print.”

“You filmed it? Jesus.” Jack wiped the sweat from his top lip. “You knew I was drunk.”

“You don’t look drunk in the video, and we’d show it to people who count. I know you’ve tried to get money. There wasn’t a bookie in town who’d extend you credit, was there? Not when you owe Max as much as you do. Your house is mortgaged to the hilt. You tried to borrow money using the hotel as collateral, but these are bad times. They’re not lending, and you’re not a good risk. Even if you got the money, you’d lose the hotel gambling. Your father would come back to haunt you. Let’s face it, Jack. You gambled. You lost. Now it’s pay-up time, and you can’t pay. What do you think we should do?”

“I need more time. I’ll find the money somewhere.”

The stack of pictures in Alex’s jacket felt like hot coals. He pictured the photos of Charlotte, the same ones Jack had given him at Starbucks. His jaw clenched so tight he had to struggle to get out the words. He shook his head. “Time’s up.” He took Charlotte’s photos out of his breast pocket and riffled them at Davidson in a way Max couldn’t see. Davidson’s face reddened even more. Alex’s insides shook. “There’s a way we can even this out.

“Your car and yacht are a piss in the bucket compared to what you owe Carpathian Enterprises, and you owe the banks for both of them. Here’s the deal. Keep it all: the house and yacht; even keep that gaudy two-hundred-thousand-dollar car. You’ll be paying on those for years to come. But you pay off the debt to Max with part ownership of the Regent. It’ll give him a controlling interest, but it’ll save you from losing everything.”