Steel & Ice (32 page)

“
Fuck,” I said, trying to
catch my breath.

“
Yeah, fuck,” J replied. My
hands were still firmly pressed against the mirror and his arms
were still wrapped around my middle. “Look up.” I blinked a few
times, trying to register what J said. He leaned into my ear and
said it again. “Look up, sweetheart.”

I looked up and he was gazing at me in the
mirror. My face was flushed, yet utterly relaxed. We both had eyes
that we were struggling to stay open. Seeing him behind me, inside
me, holding me. It turned me on all over again. My eyes opened
wider to take it all in. A sly smile crept across J’s face. I
reached up around his neck, and pulled his lips against mine.
“Sated,” I mumbled, while running my lips across his. I had read
the word a million times in books, and knew what it meant in
theory. This was the singular moment in time when I discovered what
it meant in real life.

We cleaned ourselves up and got back on the
bike. I’d be lying if the rumbling of the engine underneath me,
being pressed up against J again, and the memories of we’d just
done didn’t make the last half hour of the drive torturous. It was
a good torture though. A torture that would be remedied when we
arrived at the hotel. It would be remedied many times. Many, many
times.

I don’t know where I
expected to be staying in Kansas City. I hadn’t asked. J said he
had a place for us to stay. I figured it would be at the house of
someone he knew. Or maybe there was a clubhouse like in the MC
romance novels I’d read. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past J to pull up
in front of a cabin. I noticed we took the freeway and crossed over
into Kansas. When we pulled up to the hotel (if you could call it
that) all I could think was
if this is
Kansas, I understand why Dorothy wanted to get home so
bad.

We weren’t at a hotel or someone’s house,
and we certainly weren’t at a cabin. We were at a Chateau. I’d
spent my life playing it cool, but pulling up to the Chateau Avalon
on J’s bike had me wide-eyed and mesmerized. The front of the
building looked like a castle, and the grounds looked like
somewhere Hugh Hefner could throw one of his infamous parties. All
it needed was a grotto.

J pulled the bike up in front and shut it
off. He got off first and then helped me down. I removed my helmet
and passed it to him. I was speechless, staring at the place I was
going to be sleeping that night. I’d never seen, let alone slept,
in a place so nice. Hell, I’d slept in cars, on sofas, next to
smelly men, and once in a closet. This was 180° from where I’d ever
been.

J stood, watching me. His chuckle brought me
out of my daze. “Close your mouth, sweetheart, unless you want my
tongue in it.”

“
Fuckin’ A,” I whispered. J
grabbed our bags and took my hand to lead me inside. Really, I
tried my best not to stare and look like a dork, but it was all so
beautiful. Even the lobby took my breath away. I turned in a circle
taking it all in. There were curtains hanging in front of the
walls. Cream, textured curtains that were surely not there to hold
light out, but to look nothing short of opulent. Opulent. Another
word I had read, but never seen firsthand. The sitting area was
painted in a rusty red color and cream, making it feel warm and
sensual. I was about to go wandering when J pulled me towards the
front desk.

“
Ah, Mr. Odell. I have the
Monte Cristo room all ready for you. Will you be dining with us
this evening?” The attendant didn’t seem to mind that we were in
jeans and leather jackets. He spoke to J as if he were
royalty.

“
No. We’re going into town
for dinner.” J winked at the desk guy. Huh?

“
Perfect.” The desk guy
winked back. What the hell? “Here is your key. Enjoy your stay, and
let me know if you need anything when you return from dinner. Vance
will escort you to your room.”

J thanked him and followed the man I assumed
to be Vance. As we walked deeper into the Chateau, I was
continuously stunned by its beauty. There were gold mirrors hung
along the walls. We twisted and turned a variety of times. This
place was easily bigger than a football field. Maybe two. We
finally arrived at a set of dark, wooden double doors.

“
Shall I show you your
accommodations?” Vance asked.

“
No thanks. We’ll show
ourselves,” J responded. Why would we need to be shown our
accommodations? It was just a room.

“
Very well. There is a
private door you can enter and exit from on the first level. That
key will work in this door and the exterior door. Ring the front
desk if you need anything, sir.”

“
Thanks,” J said, slipping
Vance a fifty dollar bill.

J opened the door and I walked in, quickly
realizing why Vance offered to show us our room. It wasn’t a room,
it was a freaking apartment. There were three floors, with a spiral
staircase leading up to who knows where.

“
Elle?” I turned to J, my
mouth hanging open. “Want me to show you around?” I
nodded.

He showed me the first floor first, which
consisted of a sitting room and a kitchen. We walked up a staircase
to a giant bed overlooking the first floor. It was a wrought iron
four post bed. “Feel like being tied up tonight?” J asked with a
smirk, pulling a silk scarf out of the nightstand.

“
Dude.”

“
Dude?”

“
Fuck.”

“
Can you try for full
sentences, baby?” J asked, a smile creeping across his
face.

“
How did you find this
place? It’s like a castle or a palace. It’s amazing.”

“
I had heard about it, and
checked it out the last time I was in town. Each suite is
different. I chose this one for two reasons.”

I turned to him, mystified by all this man
had done for me. It was clear he put some thought into this. No one
had ever done anything this nice for me before. Hell, most guys
thought giving flowers was the grandest gesture possible. J had
given me decadent beauty, the flowers he sent in a crystal vase. He
had given me simple beauty, the bracelet he made himself. I put my
hand to my neck and touched the token necklace. He had given me
memories. Ones that would leave me with good dreams instead of
nightmares.

I tilted my head, and asked the obvious
question. “What two reasons?”

“
You’re looking at one,” he
said, tossing the black silk scarf onto the bed. He grabbed my hand
and led me up another staircase. “And this is the second reason I
chose this suite.” We stood in front of the largest bathtub I’d
ever seen. It wasn’t even a bathtub. The brochure on the ledge said
it was a ‘chromotherapy whirlpool spa’.

I threw my arms around J’s neck and jumped
into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him and squeezed—and I
squealed a bit. Yep. I was a squealer, and as long as J was in my
life, there was no going back. He managed to thaw the ice around my
heart that created my cool, calm exterior. I think when the ice
melted, it turned into the pool that was in my panties whenever J
was around.

He spun me a round a few times, then sat us
on the edge. I straddled him, my legs dangling in the tub. “I love
it,” I said, kissing his neck. “I love everything. This place, the
suite, the bed, the—“ I nibbled his ear while leaning forward to
grab the brochure. “—the chromotherapy whirlpool spa. I love it
all.”

“
Good. That was the point.”
J placed a kiss on my lips that was soft, yet filled with passion.
He pulled away and looked me in the eye. “All of this is for you.
Everything is for you. Anything you want, it’s yours, Elle.” He
kissed me again. This time when he pulled back there was a
playfulness in his eyes. “Sex or food?”

Hmmm. They both sounded good. I hadn’t eaten
since before he picked me up. My stomach was feeling a little
rumbly. Buuuuut I was also throbbing between my legs. “Food. No
sex. Wait, no. Food, then sex. Shit. Can we eat and fuck at the
same time?”

J threw his head back and laughed. He hugged
me tighter. “I feel your stomach rumbling, so let’s go eat.”

“
Do I need to dress up?” I
only brought two other tops to wear with the same jeans and
sneakers I had on. And the tops had to go with the jacket, or my
gold sneakers would look ridiculously flashy.

“
Nah. There’s a little dive
bar with great pasta I know of just over the state
line.”

“
OK. Can I have a few
minutes to freshen up?”

“
Sure. I’ll be at the bar in
the lobby. I need to make a few phone calls anyway. Meet me there
when you are ready and we’ll go.” I nodded and kissed him once
more.

After J left, I washed my face and sprayed
my hair with some moisturizer. The helmet hadn’t exactly been kind
to my curls. I revived them as much as I could and made a loose
braided again. I wandered around the suite looking for my bag. It
really was the epitome of the word opulent. Every corner was filled
with something extravagant. Gold mirrors, sprawling displays of
fresh flowers, a fountain. A fountain! This bitch had a fountain?
How did I miss that on the way in? I took my phone out and shot
some video of the room. I found my bag by the front door and took
it up to the bed. I took more video of the bed area before I
switched shirts. Finally, I climbed the spiral steps to the third
level to take some video of the bathroom. I could have wandered the
suite for another thirty minutes, but I thought the first thirty
might be pushing it.

I exited the suite through the interior door
out into the hallway. Emerging into the main lobby, I must’ve
looked as lost as I was, because Vance was suddenly there, putting
his arm out for me to take.

“
To the bar with Mr.
Odell?”

“
Yes. Thanks Vance.” I took
his arm. He looked to be in his forties. Everything about him was
proper. His clean cut brown hair. His perfectly pressed black and
burgundy uniform. Especially his formal manner of speech. Despite
that, he gave me warm smile as he escorted me to the
bar.

I saw J before he saw me. He was on the
phone with his hand in his hair, pulling at it.

“
Thanks Vance. I got it from
here.” He nodded, and told me again to call if we needed
anything.

I slowly walked toward J, giving him time to
see me. He released his hair only to start kneading his shoulder.
His eagle shoulder. His Gramps. I heard him tell the person on the
other line he’d see him in thirty minutes. I guess we weren’t going
straight to dinner.

I stood next to J as he was finishing up his
call. I took his hand from his shoulder and nuzzled my face into
his neck. He was at the perfect height sitting on the iron bar
stool. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled my body flush
against his side.

“
Yeah, by the barn in
thirty. Don’t bring the whole crew.”

I heard someone on the other line say
something about not scaring J’s girl.

“
She’s tough as nails. I
just don’t feel like dealing with everyone. This is earlier than
scheduled and you’re fucking up my night. So thirty by the barn.
Don’t be late.” He hung up the phone. “Sorry babe, we gotta make a
quick stop before dinner.”

“
I gathered that. It’s cool.
Who are we meeting?”

“
You’re not meeting anyone
if I can help it.”

I was a little annoyed. “Is there something
wrong with me?”

J brushed his lips against mine. “No. You’re
perfect. There’s something wrong with them. Let’s go get this over
with so I can feed you and get back to that bed.”

He stood up and threw his arm around my
shoulder. We got back on the bike and sped off. We didn’t get on
the freeway though. We took some back roads and passed into
Missouri. After thirty minutes, we pulled off the road into a field
with a huge barn. The kind you rarely see any more except for deep
in the countryside. It seemed too close to the city for a barn to
be here.

J turned the motor off and we glided to the
front doors. “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” J said, jumping off
the bike before I could protest.

I would admit it freely to anyone. I’m a
nosey bitch. Curious I prefer actually. I got off the bike and
crept to the doors of the barn. There was some old school Nine Inch
Nails playing loud enough to muffle the voices. J was talking to
two men. There were crates all over the barn, and a variety of
tables and chairs. The tables varied in size and shape from a
typical dinner table to long, handmade, unfinished wood tables.
This sure as hell wasn’t a barn for livestock.

Again, I could tell J was irritated with
whatever the two guys were saying as his hand stayed plastered to
his eagle shoulder. Both of the other guys had on leather vests.
Their cuts. J had his standard jeans and hoodie, no vest. One of
the guys gave J a piece of paper. A few more words were exchanged
before J moved to leave. I scrambled back onto the bike. When J
came out, he wore a scowl on his face. One I didn’t see often. This
obviously hadn’t been a pleasant meeting for him. He got on the
bike and pulled away without him saying a word to me.

I spent the next twenty-five minutes
imagining a variety of scenarios. Was he running drugs? Guns?
Women? Fuck. He didn’t pick up or drop off anything. Those crates
weren’t full of chinaware. I could easily deduce whatever was in
them was not legal or they wouldn’t be stored in a barn outside of
the city, accessed by dirt roads. And whatever had taken place
happened off schedule, and left J pissed off. I sighed and
tightened my hold on him. It was getting to a point where I was
going to have to either start asking questions or stop thinking
about it all. Yeah, I so wasn’t capable of not thinking about
it.