Temptation (Club Destiny) (42 page)

“Fuck!” Luke’s animalistic growl shattered the sexual tension coursing through her, and Sierra gave herself over to the feelings that were igniting in her core. That first tingle of her orgasm building, growing stronger with each powerful thrust until her body spasmed, her muscles locked and her release took her with such powerful force, she wondered if she would literally break apart.

The roar that followed wasn’t just the blood pounding in her ears, but Luke’s release as he filled her even more completely than she had ever been before.

~~  **  ~~  **  ~~  **  ~~

 “Can you meet me at my apartment after work today?” Lucie asked Cole as she dropped off another shot of whiskey. It’d been a long day, and Cole had stopped by Club Destiny, agreeing to meet Alex when the man had called that afternoon.

“Is everything ok?” He asked, noting the dark circles under Lucie’s pretty brown eyes.

“Not really.” She admitted, turning to go before Cole latched onto her arm, gently stopping her.

“Is it Haley?” He was worried. After they had gone to the doctor a couple of weeks before, Lucie had been a nervous wreck.

The doctor had informed her he definitely needed to remove Haley’s tonsils to ease the constant strep and put tubes in her ears to help with the ear infections. Routine surgeries, he had informed them.

Cole didn’t know much when it came to kids, but he knew something had to be done to help Haley. They had taken the little girl to McDonald’s after the appointment, letting her burn off some energy on the playscape while Cole and Lucie hashed out her next steps. Thankfully Lucie agreed to the surgeries which were scheduled for two weeks from now.

“No. She’s fine.” Lucie told him, easing some of the tension that had been building over the course of the last two days.

“Alright. I’ll stop by.” Cole conceded, knowing Lucie didn’t want to go into detail at the club, and he couldn’t necessarily blame her.

“Thanks.” With that Lucie walked off, leaving Cole with his drink and a ton of worries.

The things he had on his mind weren’t anything out of the norm. At least not for him, but Cole couldn’t seem to get past them. One would think that with as much sex as he was getting, he wouldn’t have a care in the world, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Although he’d spent almost every single night for the past couple of weeks with Sierra and Luke, he couldn’t help but think they had come to the point in this so called arrangement that required them to determine what the next steps were.

The fact that he had told both Sierra and Luke that he loved them, and they hadn’t returned the sentiment bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Even though he had told them both only once, and during the heat of the moment, he wondered if they knew how hard it had been for him to share that much of himself. To not get anything in return left him wanting more. He only wondered whether they wanted the same thing he did.

Thankfully Alex McDermott chose that moment to intrude on his wandering thoughts as he pulled back a chair at the table and sat down with the same grace and style the man did everything else with.

“Thanks for meeting me.” Alex said, turning toward the bar, catching Lucie’s attention.

Alex was a regular at the club, both of them in fact, but no one knew much about him other than he had become more and more irritated over the last few weeks. Cole had an idea as to what was causing that irritation, but it was none of his business, and he and Alex weren’t what he would consider friends, so he wasn’t about to broach the subject.

“No problem. What’s up?” Cole knew this had to be about business because that was the only time Alex ever approached him, and since he needed something to help get his mind off of things better left alone, he was anxiously awaiting the reason for the impromptu meeting.

“I need your help.” Alex admitted, suddenly looking tired.

“Alright.” Cole hesitated.

“I want to hire you.”

Assuming Alex meant as a contractor, he nodded his head, encouraging Alex to continue. The last time he’d worked for Alex had been at the conference in Vegas and based on the feedback he’d received, they had drummed up some business out of the deal. Which was good for Alex and the man had compensated Cole nicely.

“Permanently.” Alex added then paused for Lucie to set the drink on the table. “Thanks.” He told her before turning back to Cole.

“Permanently?” Cole wasn’t looking for anything permanent. That didn’t explain why the idea intrigued him.

“Yes. We’ve just gotten too busy, and I can’t seem to keep up. Even with Dylan onboard and Sam working double to try and fulfill her contract with XTX while helping out with a couple of other big clients we’ve recently taken on, I’m quickly losing my mind. I can’t do everything, and since Dylan has continued to be reclusive, I’m unable to convince him to handle any of the PR work that we need.”

“Why me?”

“Because you know the ins and outs of CISS and you’re good at what you do. So, before you say no, let me tell you what I need you to do.” Alex hurried through the statement, obviously anticipating Cole’s immediate rejection.

For the next half hour Cole listened to Alex’s spiel. The man had obviously given this some serious thought before approaching him. And although Alex was looking to hire Cole as the front man for their public relations work, he didn’t realize how much better he would be at the job if he just handled it himself. But, that didn’t mean Cole wasn’t interested. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he apparently was ready for something more permanent. Something that he could look forward to day in and day out.

That longing had spilled over into his personal as well as his professional life and Cole figured this wasn’t necessarily a bad place to start.

“I’m in.” He said, stunning Alex into complete silence.

After a few tension filled seconds passed, Alex blurted, “You’re in? Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Well hell. I thought it would be a harder sell than that. You should’ve seen the hoops I had to jump through to get Sam onboard.”

Cole laughed, remembering the story Logan had shared with him several months back. After some highly escalated HR violations, Alex had come up with a plan to salvage Sam’s job while still allowing XTX to benefit from her employment. In the end, it had all worked out, so obviously Alex was a better salesman than he thought.

“So are you still officing out of XTX?” Cole asked.

“No. With Dylan coming on, he wanted to put a little distance between himself and his grandfather, so we took up residence in a building not too far from them. XTX is still our biggest client, and Xavier is a very demanding man.” Alex smiled.

“Well, just let me know what the next steps are, and I’m game. I don’t have much going on right now, so I just need a week or so to tie up some loose ends.”

Alex downed the rest of his drink in one quick swallow. “I’ll set up a meeting for you, me, Dylan and Sam so we can discuss what our strategy is. Big things are coming for CISS, and if I don’t get ahead of this now, we might have some big
problems
on our hands.”

The two men shook hands, both standing from their seats. Cole had a couple of things he needed to get done before he stopped by Lucie’s. Once Alex disappeared out the back doors, Cole stopped by the bar, acknowledging Luke as he passed him.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Cole said to Lucie before turning to leave.

“Alright.” She whispered, obviously aware of her audience. With both Luke and Kane looking on, she had every right to be nervous.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When Susan opened the front door, looking both elegant and highly pissed off, Sierra knew she was not going to enjoy this meeting. Not that she had enjoyed any of their meetings, especially the last one Susan had insisted on. Sierra had to walk away from Luke and Cole that day just so her work could be questioned yet again. Although that day something seemed off about Susan, and if Sierra wasn’t mistaken, the woman was trying to ask about her personal life.

However, being the professional that she was, she’d agreed to meet Susan when she had called that morning. Her inner bitch hadn’t been so excited about the deal, but Sierra had repressed that part of her, gotten ready and high tailed it over to Susan’s house.

“It’s about time.”

Well, how the fuck are you too?
Sierra had grown accustomed to Susan’s bitchiness, but she had to bite her tongue repeatedly to keep from telling the woman exactly what she thought of her. Knowing this woman had been with both Luke and Cole had set off something dark and possessive inside of her, making each and every meeting they had nearly unbearable.

Following Susan into the kitchen, not her office like she expected, Sierra began to get a little nervous. Had something gone wrong? Did one of the contractors screw something up?

“Can I get you something to drink?” Susan was ever the hostess, never missing a beat, but Sierra wasn’t going to drag this out any longer than she had to.

“No, I’m good, thank you.” When Susan took a seat at the kitchen table, Sierra stopped abruptly.

“Sit.” Susan stated firmly, followed by a reluctant, “Please.”

Sierra sat.

“We need to talk.”

That’s the one thing, and probably the only thing, they both agreed on. Getting up each morning was beginning to be a difficult chore just knowing she might have to face Susan again. Although they had agreed on a design, and Sierra had subcontracted out the work, Susan still nitpicked over every little detail, often causing the contractor to insist Sierra come over to smooth the waters so to speak. Not that it had ever done any good.

“There’s a rumor going around that has me concerned.” Susan started, glancing down at her hands and then back up at Sierra.

Unsure of where this was going, Sierra remained silent.

“It’s been brought to my attention that you are in a relationship with two men.”

Susan was doing her best to sound disgusted with the notion, but Sierra’s hackles immediately rose. Susan was a member of the club. She had been a willing participant in some sexual exploits that would likely blow Sierra’s mind, and here she was trying to pretend that the idea of being with two men disgusted her. Did Susan not realize Sierra knew who she was? Or at least who Susie Mackendrick was. They apparently were two very different people, housed in the same body.

Deciding that this might just be the blessing she had been hoping for, Sierra opted for the truth. “I am.”

“And you don’t see the problem with that?” Susan asked, clearly startled by Sierra’s honesty.

“I don’t.” Keeping her answers simple was the only way Sierra was going to manage to get through this awkward conversation. She only hoped Susan would fire her and get it over with. Never in her life had she wanted to take the easy way out, but that was before she met this overbearing, impossible to please woman.

For a lawyer, used to arguing her case, Susan faltered more than Sierra expected. Or maybe Sierra’s answers hadn’t been simple enough for her to understand.

“Well.” Exasperation tinged the word, and Susan locked her eyes with Sierra’s. “I’ve had to come to a hard decision after learning this information. I wanted to talk to you first, make sure the rumor was actually true. Now that I know it is, I need to tell you I’m concerned about your employment.”

Thank goodness. Sierra didn’t speak out loud, although she wouldn’t have been more surprised if the words had burst from her chest with pride. “Ok.”

“I think it is in your best interest for you to quit.”

Ok. There was the
more
surprise.

Being fired was one thing. Quitting was something entirely different. She couldn’t control the actions of others, and if Susan wanted to fire her because she wanted to feign concern over Sierra’s personal life, that was her prerogative. But quitting. That wasn’t in Sierra’s nature.

“I’m not the one with the problem.” Sierra said, shocking herself with the anger seeping into her blood.

“You’re in a relationship with two men, and I can’t subject myself to that sort of association. You should be ashamed of yourself first of all.”

O – K. Now the anger was coursing fast and hot. Did the woman really have the audacity to project her own personal opinion on Sierra’s personal life when it in no way affected her ability to do her job? “Well, I assure you that I am not ashamed.”

“I thought you might say that which is why I had to come up with a second option if you chose to be bullheaded.”

Bullheaded?
What the fuck?

“I insist that you quit, or I am going to have to proceed with a civil suit against you for misrepresentation.”

“Excuse me,
what
?” Sierra was dumbfounded. This woman was actually blackmailing her.

“You heard me. You clearly misrepresented yourself, and in order to protect myself, I am going to file a civil suit. I will make sure you never work in Dallas or any of its surrounding areas ever again.” The full bitch was back, a sneer on Susan’s face told Sierra she wasn’t kidding.

Pushing back her chair, Sierra stood abruptly. She’d heard enough of this. Her anger had reached maximum capacity, and if she wasn’t careful she was going to make this bad situation even worse.