Descent From Grace: A Luxe Novella Book 1.5 (8 page)

Ian glared at him; Caesar scooted away.

Lowering his voice a little, he asked, “What happened to you and Lily?”
Keeping his eyes locked on his phone screen, Ian replied, “Nothing,” with a shrug.
  “So Karen’s the one then? You let hot lips just run off with another man in Barbados—”
Ian interrupted him, snapping, “Don’t fuckin’ call her that. She didn’t run off with another man.”
  “Like hell!” Caesar boasted. “I saw that fucking rock. Who the hell is Shaun anyway? You meet him? He’s a fuckin’ cop?”
Ian’s glare somehow turned colder as infuriation filled him.

  “She told you about him? She told you he proposed to her?”
Sensing he may have said too much, Caesar bumbled, “Uh.”

During his tantrum, Ian stomped away to find a quiet spot to call Lilith, but she didn’t answer. She was sleeping away her winter depression. Drawing in a few breaths, he was grateful she didn’t answer. It would have been a futile fight.

His finger on the pulse

I don’t fucking want to be here so I start pounding drinks. I haven’t talked to Lily since yesterday. I don’t know if she’s okay. I don’t even fucking know if she’s ever coming home again.

My meeting with Ulf Werner didn’t go as planned. He offered me ten thousand less than standard and it’s not acceptable, except he’s a good client and I want his business in the future, but sending one of my best girls away for a month for ten thousand less is taking a hit.

Caesar has pissed me the fuck off. I feel like I’m being lied to by Ashley, or by Lily. By someone! Caesar talks to Ashley everyday, how can he not know the truth about Lily and me?

Ashley’s a sweaty mess as she approaches the booth with a man close enough to be her tail.

I look at her and she laughs. “What’d you tell Caesar?”
  “What’d
you
tell Caesar,” I snarl.

  “Nothing.” She wipes her forehead. “That’s your and Lilith’s place.”
  “Well according to him,
Lilith
told him her ring was from that cop. What’s fucking going on?” My eyes narrow.

  “
What’s going on
?” she snickers and sits with her lackey shadowing her movements. “You’re marrying my best friend and fucking my worst enemy.”

This is not the place to piss her off; she’ll cause a scene and I really don’t want attention drawn to me.

It’s hard, but I manage to appear calm. “Did she tell Caesar he gave her the ring?”

She rolls her eyes. “Jokingly.” Her drink presses to her lips and she’s swallowing like it’s water and not a sixteen dollar Tequila Sunrise. “She didn’t tell him anything.” Getting to her feet, she kicks my shoe with her obnoxiously pointy toe. “Have some fun. Fuck, you’re a miserable prick since meeting Lily.”

I think that’s true.

At the bar, I’m approached by a man who immediately pushes his hand into mine and says, “Hey. Ian Jacks.”

I don’t know him, or I don’t remember him.

  “I’ve bought from you before,” he says and I give him a firmer, friendlier handshake. “Ally? Alice?”
  “Ally.” I nod.

He inhales through his teeth. “Nice girl. Real nice.”
  “Thank you.” I turn back to the bar.

  “Let me get your drink.”

Biting back my irritation, I tell him, “I’m all right, thanks. If you need anything, you have our number.” Taking my drink, I walk away as quickly as I casually can.

I’m not going to conduct business in a nightclub and I’m not going to let him buy me drinks with the hopes of cheaper rates on my girls.

There’s a girl sitting at our booth. It’s my fucking booth! When I come here I request the same booth every time and I get it. I approach the table and glance around, seeing she’s alone.
  “You sitting here?” I ask; obviously she’s fucking sitting here.
  “I’m waiting for Ashley.”

I slightly shake my head and sit.

  “I’m Nic—”
  “I’m married,” I interrupt before she says anything else.

Extremely offended, she snickers, “I’m gay.”

Now I realize this is catfight Nic, Nic that scratched my girl, Nic that I don’t like.

  “I’m sorry,” I blurt, wanting to know why she’s around.

  “I’m friends with Ashley.”

I look at her, wanting answers. Like why’d you hit my girl? Why are you saying you’re friends with my sister? Why are you here?

I can’t stop the contempt on my face or in my tone. “I know who you are.”
  “You’re friends with Lily.” She points to me. “With the car and the nice apartment.”
  “You were in my apartment?” That doesn’t sit well with me.

  “I was dating Lily for a while. I picked her up there once.”
  “You weren’t dating her,” I say derisively. “You were fucking. That’s all it was.”

She wants to kill me and I’m probably giving her the same look.

Ashley approaches during our stare down. “Ian, this is Nic, she knows Lily.”
Looking at her like she’s inept, I growl, “I know!” I want to ask her what the fuck she’s doing.

  “Let’s get a drink.” She pulls Nic away from the table.
I need to go home. I need to be with Lily, but I’m going home to Karen.

By one thirty my suit coat’s off, my tie is undone, my shirt is un-tucked, and I’m hammered. Caesar is helping me to my apartment and I think they’re staying the night. I manage to get my shoes and pants off, but don’t bother with anything else. I just want to close my eyes and dream about Lily.

***

Being woken up by the best feeling in the world, I reach my hand out trying to open my eyes, but I’m so tired and still drunk. Lily’s riding my cock though and I wouldn’t give a damn if my head was split in two, this is perfect. I touch her stomach and my fingers graze something hard, a belly button ring. My great wakeup call comes to a screeching halt in my head, almost splitting it in two. When my eyes pop open, I see it’s not Lily, it’s Karen and I grip her hips tightly, stilling her. Fuck, she didn’t put on a condom. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I don’t want to fuck her without a condom after knowing she cheated. I vowed to myself I wouldn’t anymore because I don’t use condoms with Lily and knowing Karen was whoring around I don’t want to give Lily anything.

She giggles and starts moving again. With a grunt I flip her to her back. We’ve already been going at this awhile because I was having an amazing dream that I was being fucked. I’m not happy, but I’m hard. I haven’t gotten off since Lily, Tuesday or Wednesday. Fuck, what day was that? I shouldn’t wonder how long it’s been since I fucked her. I need to be fucking her everyday.

I’m rough with Karen, too rough, but I’m pissed she’s done this. Grunting with every thrust, my thighs are slapping against the back of hers, echoing through the room. I don’t even know what kind of noises she’s making because all I’m thinking about is getting off. Keeping my eyes closed tight, I try to think of Lily, or anyone other than Karen, but I can’t get off.

  “Come, babe,” she moans.

I grab her ankles, drilling harder, closing my eyes tighter until I release partially inside, pulling out midway.

I collapse to the bed next to her and scoot her away with a forceful push. I fucking told her I didn’t want to fuck her, then she does this without wearing a condom. I’m pissed. Springing from the bed, I pull on my shorts, then walk to the bathroom without looking at her once.

The closed bathroom door opens and there’s a woman standing there. She’s a good-looking woman and she eyes me up then down; I do the same to her and we slip by each other, trading spots. I check her out once more before closing the door. Who the fuck is she?

*LUXE*

Ian showered, washing his body twice; he didn’t want a trace of Karen on him. From the bathroom, he decided to find out who the attractive woman was. With a towel around his waist, he walked into the living room. Ashley sat on the couch with the woman and Caesar was sleeping on the floor next to the coffee table with another unknown female.

The bathroom woman’s eyes shot to his naked chest, then slowly down the V of his hips; she ran her tongue over her bottom lip.

  “I can’t believe you still fuck her.” Disgust oozed from Ashley’s words and gaze.
  “Get out,” Ian muttered, and turned toward the hallway, no longer interested in who the woman was. Going into the bedroom, Karen was in bed crying. He rushed to her side. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He searched her body for any indication she was hurt.
  “You tried to kill me.” She sniffled.

  “I hurt you?” he said almost with a gasp. “Kare, I’m sorry.” He picked her up, sliding underneath her.
  “Why were you going so hard?” she whined through tears.
  “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.” He kissed her head. “Where’d I hurt you?”

Sobbing into his chest, she didn’t answer.

When she began to calm down, he finally was able to say, “We have to use a condom.”
The crying began again, with a squeal of, “Why?”
  “I want to use a condom from now on.”
  “Oh fuck you, Ian,” she wailed, getting off him. “Is there someone else?” The vulnerability and weakness in her tone didn’t hit him like it usually did. It angered him.

He looked at her through narrowed eyes and threw her question back at her. “Is there?”
  “Ian, I told you one time!” She sobbed harder.
  “Yes, you told me about one time.” He got out of the bed and began to dress.

While crying loudly, she had her face buried in her hands; he stared at the top of her head a minute.

  “I’ll make you something to eat,” he muttered, leaving her to cry alone.

While he made Karen breakfast, Ashley approached him. “How can you fuck her when you have Lilith?” She scowled.

  “I love her!” he sneered loudly.

Ashley turned to walk away, suddenly turning back to say, “Ian, Lily loves Shaun. That cop from Barbados.” Satisfied with the grief she caused him, she left the kitchen.

He lowered his head, slamming closed the cupboard above the stove. Balled fists on the countertop held him up.

The attractive blonde entered the kitchen, startling him when she asked, “Can I get a glass of water?”
Pointing, he said, “In the fridge,” and turned back to the pan.

  “I’m Heidi.” Her seedy gaze fixed on his back while she opened the water bottle.
  “I’m Ian. This is my apartment. Why are you here?” Looking over his shoulder, he nailed the asshole glare he was going for.

She smirked. “My friend came home with your friend and I didn’t realize until the morning that this wasn’t actually his place.”
  “Him sleeping on my living room floor wasn’t a dead giveaway that this isn’t his house?”

  “There wasn’t much of sleeping going on.” She grinned deviously. “We were all drunk.” She looked him over again. “You live here with your girlfriend?”

  “No.” His annoyed stare left her and went back to the pan of eggs.

  “Oh, I just assumed.”
He cocked his eyebrow and shifted to turn around and get a good look at her.

  “Why’d you assume that?”
  “I heard fucking in that room you came out of.”
  “You can only fuck if you live with your girlfriend?” Having no idea what was driving his actions, he let his eyes drift down her legs and immediately recognized they were nice enough to linger on.

  “I didn’t say that.” Her seductive tone hit a nerve.

Finally he came to his senses and pulled his eyes away from her. “My fiancée lives in our condo and I live here.”

There was no way Lilith would put up with another woman . . . maybe.

  “Oh! Fiancée.” She chuckled with annoyance. “Well, Ian—” She turned on her heal then looked over her shoulder at him. “You don’t only have to fuck your fiancée.” With a wink she walked away.

He smirked, looking back at the pan, but immediately wiped the grin from his face when Lilith boxed her way into his head.

Before Karen got out of bed, he brought the food into the bedroom. She fed him a few bites and he kissed her head.

  “See if your mom or sister can come over today. I have a lot to take care of at the office.” He wanted to sit at the condo and wait for Lilith.

  “Can’t we spend today together? It’s Sunday.”
  “We spent yesterday together. You slept all day, remember?”
  “You left at seven, babe, then came home drunk as hell at three. Take me out. I want to get out of here for a while.”

He stared at her a minute before nodding in agreement. “We’ll go to your place. You should be okay to go home in about a week, and I need you back at work. Tash and Natalie have been swapped in reception and I don’t know what they’re doing to the books. I’ve had more face to face meetings since you’ve been gone than I have all year. I need you back in there.”

The thought he needed her delighted her. With a chuckle, she fed him another bite then kissed him.

  “I hired a new girl and need another.”
  “No one’s applied on their own?”
  “We had those couple back in May. Maybe when you’re back you can call them in for interviews.”
  “Who’s the new girl? You scout her, or she—”
  “Ashley’s friend. The one that was dating my old college acquaintance Sloan Mac.”
  “Lily,” she grumbled.