Pleasure Extraordinaire 2 (PURSUIT) (14 page)

We finally pay the necessary attention to the now-cold tea and drink it while watching
Frat House. Apparently Taylor is the only female left on Earth who’s not aware of
the sexual pursuits of four hot college guys. Well until now, because tonight she’s
getting nothing but a heavy dose of Frat House until she remembers nothing about her
miscarriage.

Around midnight, my cell beeps with message. I move over Taylor to get it from the
nightstand and notice she’s dozed off. Pulling the bedcovers over her, I palm my cell,
switch off the TV and head to the kitchen.

The text is from Adam, asking about Taylor.

My reply:
“Already sleeping after having watched six episodes of Frat House. You’ll have to
hug your pillow to sleep tonight and maybe the rest of your life because she’s now
in love with the actors of the show.”

His reply:
“That marriage wrecker show must be banned at all costs! See you and hopefully my
wife tomorrow for breakfast?”

The board members of Hawkins Media Group must be suffering from severe lack of attention
from their wives. That’s why they want to cancel the show. Now, that makes more sense
than the lower ratings as an excuse.

I reply to him with a simple
“Okay, good night.”
Just when I start to put the phone on the counter, I note an alert for another message.
Not a new one but unopened. Curious and nervous, I tap on the screen and nearly drop
the phone when I see the text is from Ace.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Cold shivers run across my body as I read the words again and again. The afternoon
with him was like a dream. Every minute in his arms felt like rebirth for my body.
I bring my fingers over my lips, tasting myself, unsure if I imagined it all. The
taste of his lips, his skin, his arousal. So unique and yet so familiar. Like everything
else of him.

I realize the time he sent the message was ten fifteen, almost two hours ago. Why
didn’t I hear the cell beeping before? Has he been waiting for a reply from me? Maybe
thinking I don’t give a shit about him.

“What exactly can’t you stop thinking about me?”
I text back, hoping he hasn’t given up on me.

“Your skin against mine, your lips on me, feeling you taking me inside you...”
His message pushes me to groan. Almost. Oh my god. My inside muscles clench deliciously
at his words. I want him desperately, hopelessly, madly, uncontrollably. If he was
here with me right now, I wouldn’t let him blink an eye throughout the night.

I
plop down on the couch of the room attached to my office and close my eyes. It’s
nine thirty in the evening, and I’m exhausted both physically and mentally. Lindsay
and Michael hit heavily on my metabolism individually but after having been exposed
to both of them the same day, I’m nothing but a sack of worn-out muscles.

The Russian envoy will be a problem I have to tackle before the party starts. Michael
is ready to throw anyone directly into the wolf’s mouth to get what he wants.

“Lindsay will be here, too, but make sure she doesn’t get involved with anyone unless
it’s requested by the minister himself.”

Unless it’s requested by the minister? Jesus! The thought of being forced to watch
Lindsay manhandled by some undeserving pig is enough to paralyze me. I have to make
sure she won’t be within a ten-mile radius of the minister for that matter. I’ll inject
her with the swine-flu virus if it’s the only way to get her out of Michael and his
guests’ sights.

This is the first time Michael has asked me for help in entertaining his guests. Must
be the confidentiality of the visit of the Russian minister. What is Michael after
this time? I don’t have the slightest idea of his business plans. I wouldn’t know
if he’s thinking about starting up a TV channel over in Russia or getting into the
East European drug world.

Zane would know, but I’d rather stay away from him. I still haven’t forgiven him for
going after Lindsay. Was she a one-time hook up for him? As much as I hate his guts
for using women for only one-night-stands, I hope Lindsay is a long-forgotten name
on the lengthy list of women he chases only for sex because I’m in no mood to deal
with him right now. He’ll likely end up setting Michael against me.

How about Lindsay? She wanted both Zane and me for the threesome. Is she attracted
to him and maybe more? Fuck. The only woman I’ve met who has more to her than sexual
qualities has to have something going on with Zane too. That’s just wrong.

She hasn’t pushed me away or called the police for my insult, although she had every
right to. She saw my regret, my defeated and crushed soul and gave me a second chance.
The way she opened up and gave herself to me loosened something in me, changed the
rigidity in the depths of my soul.

I can feel her everywhere and smell her intoxicating scent as if she’s right here,
before me. My mind and my whole body are in a constant state of being at the brink
of an orgasm, even though I had my release in her, marked her as mine without the
barrier of a condom. The fire that comes with the close proximity of her body is still
wild and destructive inside me, even though she’s not here.

What is it with her that my mind can’t push her out and my manhood can’t stop throbbing
for her, ignoring all the other available ladies?

What is she doing now? Hanging out with her friends? Enjoying some delicious food
in a newly discovered restaurant? Drinking the night away? Watching TV? At least I
know she’s not with another guy, thanks to the contract she has with Michael. What
an irony.

Is she thinking about me? Does she have the slightest idea of her effect on me? How,
when they’re pointed at me, her angry dark eyes can make everything else in my life
worthless? How her touch can erase the damaging memories of my gloomy past? And when
she’s away, it’s as if everything traumatic I’ve experienced doubles up and smashes
me with a sledge hammer. Breaking me down. Does she know?

I pull my cell out of my pocket and text her, “I can’t stop thinking about you.” I
stare at the phone for the next hours on high alert, blinking only when I must, nervous
like a school boy sitting for a test for the first time, but nothing comes. No text,
no call.

She’s too much for my nerves to handle. Too intense, too tantalizing. This waiting,
trying to second-guess her feelings for me make me physically tired. My muscles are
worn-out and hurting as if I fought with the top MMA fighters.

Maybe I should just give up on her, ignore her existence, and forget that she ever
existed. I already have enough problems on my plate, as it is. My men and my clients
occupy enough of my life 24/7. Not to mention Michael and my siblings. Why bother
adding another stress, another drop in the already full glass? Women shouldn’t matter
for me at this point of my life. I should go about them just like Zane. Hook up once
or twice, then never look back. Much less hassle and more tranquility.

My phone beeps with a new text message from Lindsay and just like that my conviction
vanishes.

“What exactly can’t you stop thinking about me?”

I sit straight when I type my next message.
“Your skin against mine, your lips on me, feeling you taking me inside you...”
Only the truth, unadulterated, plain and straightforward, just like she appreciates
it.

“I want to see you again.”

I smile at myself, despite my anger at Michael. “Breakfast tomorrow? At my place?”

“I’d like that.”

I text her my address and slip the phone back into my pocket so I can doze off a few
minutes before the night shift starts. Just when I close my eyes, my office phone
rings and I jolt up on the chair. I run and grab the receiver. “Hello?”

“Ace, can you come over to my apartment now?” Chloe asks. Her voice sounds clogged,
as if she’s cried.

“Yeah, sure. What is it? Everything okay with you?”

“I’m leaving for Barbados tomorrow.”

Oh, fuck! The last time she left for abroad unexpectedly was when Michael beat her
up two years ago. She was forced to spend two weeks in Guatemala to hide the large
bruises on her face and body from the paparazzi. My hand fists automatically. I inhale
a long breath of anger. When is he going to stop abusing her?

I want to be there for her, yet I’m dreading seeing her ruined both physically and
emotionally. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Yeah, do that.” She starts crying once the words are out of her mouth. I’d have dogs
fuck that man, if I could, for damaging my sister.

I assign Alexander to take over for the night shift while I’m away and drive directly
to Chloe’s apartment in Westwood. While she normally lives at Michael’s mansion in
North Hollywood, she managed to save money and bought herself a place she can call
home and escape to whenever being around Michael becomes too much to handle.

The building has a doorman and front-desk-personnel, in addition to the video cameras
all around for security, but no amount of protection will stop the damage Michael
can give. I sign the visitors’ sheet and take the elevator to Chloe’s apartment.

Unlocking her door with my key, I rush through the foyer and find her in her bedroom.
Only when I get to her side, I see the magnitude of the damage to her face. Her entire
left cheek is purple, and the corner of her top lip is swollen with a lump the size
of a golf ball, and there’s dried blood all over her skin.

“What the fuck! What happened?” I reach out to hold her arm, but she yanks me away,
crying in pain, and I see more bruises covering her arm.

“I don’t know,” she says between her sobs. “I was out with Dylan for dinner. We didn’t
do anything inappropriate, I swear. A few paparazzi took our pictures while we were
leaving the restaurant. Next thing I know, Michael is waiting for me in my apartment.”
She burst into sobs and hides her face in her pillow. Why is he such a monster? And,
why can’t I do anything about it? Fuck me for watching him ruin my sister with each
passing year.

“He did it in front of Dylan. He made him watch while he beat me up until I got knocked
out. He threatened him not to move an inch or he’d ruin his family.”

That fucking monster. “I’m sorry, Chloe.” I dared touch her hair, caressing it slowly.
“I promise you this will be the last time he’ll ever touch you again.”

“Don’t give promises you can’t keep.” Her voice is coated with blame. More than Michael
himself, she must be hurting because Zane and I have allowed him to do whatever he
pleases with her. This has to come to an end. Even if it means the end of my business
or my life as I know it, I’ll make him stop ruining my sister.

She pushes my hand away, giving me an angry glare, but all I can see is the hurt in
her eyes. “How will you stop him? Zane couldn’t do it. Mom died trying. How do you
think you’ll keep him away from me?”

“I’ll find a way. This has to come to an end. He’s getting worse every time.”

She shakes her head, a painful smile twisting up her blood-coated lips. “Why now,
Ace? This isn’t the worst he’s beaten me up. You didn’t care the last time he messed
me up so that I had to have hip surgery, remember?”

“I cared. Honest to god, I did, but I couldn’t believe I had the power to stop him.”

“You don’t have it now, either. He’ll ruin you. You’ll wish you died.”

“I don’t care, Chloe. As long as you’re safe, he can fuck me if he wants.”

She throws herself at me, wraps her arms tightly around my neck, and buries her bruised
face on my shoulder, crying her pain out. Can I do it? Can I really protect my sister
from the devil himself? I should not only take her to a safe place so he can never
find her again, but also find a way to stop him hurting others, too. Lindsay likely
being the next one on his list.

Chloe packs a small bag with clothes, while I go out to find a public phone—a safer
way as opposed to having my cellular being listened to by Michael’s men—to call a
close friend of mine from college to ask if she can have my sister over for some time
until I figure out a way to keep her safe. Diana is at first puzzled to hear from
me in the middle of the night, but readily accepts helping me out.

Without losing a minute, I drive Chloe to Diana’s home in Camarillo, a small town
on the way to Santa Barbara, away from Michael and all the paparazzi. Having heard
my complaints about Michael enough times, Diana offers Chloe unlimited time to use
her home. But I know better than to involve another innocent person for Michael to
mess with, so, we agree on a two-week stay for now, until I come up with a permanent
solution. Meanwhile, Michael will be thinking Chloe is in Barbados.