The UN Series Complete Box Set (66 page)

“He’s afraid for your safety.”

“I won’t lie, I was terrified when I discovered someone was in the house, but that is not going to keep me from living my life.”

She grins. “Then don’t let it.”

“That’s my plan,” I reply cheerfully. My eyes slide back over to Slade and I see him smiling as he looks from Tate to Josh. It’s hard to stay mad at a man as gorgeous as he is. He must have gone home after work because he is in those baby blue jeans that hang low on his waist, with a dark gray t-shirt that hugs his muscular arms and wide chest. His hair is spiked and that smile on his beautiful face has me forgetting our conversation from earlier.

“It was Slade’s idea.” Courtney gets my attention as I stare at Slade.

“What was?” I look to her.

“Coming up here.” She takes a sip of her beer.

I smile. I knew it had to have been. “Why was that supposed to be a secret?”

She shakes her head. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

I laugh as I open a bottle of water for myself. I didn’t mind working for Becky tonight, but I can’t hide the smile from how happy I am that Slade wanted to see me.

*****

I clean off the last table and go behind the bar to pick up my purse as Slade walks out of the bathroom. “You better not have dirtied it up,” I try to say firmly.

He walks up and pulls me into his arms. “The only thing I’m going to dirty up is you.” He slides his hands into the back pockets of my jeans, giving my ass a little squeeze.

“Then why aren’t we leaving?” I mumble with my lips against his. I’ve been trying to give him the cold shoulder. It was easy not to talk to him when he was playing pool with the guys, but that didn’t stop me from staring over at him.

“Because I don’t want to wait,” he says, pushing me backward.

“Hmm. Are we going to have a repeat of the last time you fucked me in the bathroom?”

He groans. “You have no idea how much that word turns me on when you use it in reference to us.”

I giggle. “Such a dirty boy.”

“Absolutely!”

He smashes his mouth to mine as we come to a stop. As our lips work together and his tongue dances with mine, I feel his hands working on the zipper of my jeans.

I pull my face away from his. “Did you ever stop to think that I don’t want to have sex?” I say a bit too breathless.

He smiles. “Did you really think I didn’t see you staring at me from behind the bar?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide it.” I laugh.

He reaches up and slowly pulls my ponytail out. His blue eyes look into mine as he runs his hands through my hair. “You still mad at me?” he asks with concern on his beautiful face.

I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck. “You going to continue bugging me about my job?”

He looks at me as if conflicted on how to answer that question. I know he wants to say yes, but he doesn’t want to fight with me. We have bigger problems going on in our life right now besides my job.

“Do you promise me you won’t work nights anymore?”

I nod my head. “No more nights.”

“Then I won’t continue to drive you nuts about it,” he promises with a small smile.

“Enough talking and a little more fucking,” I say with a sly grin on my face.

“I love the way you think,” he responds, picking me up as I wrap my legs around him. We take a few steps backward and I hit the pool sticks, knocking them to the ground.

I place my head back against the wall and lift my arms up as he discards my shirt.

I thread my fingers in his hair as I smash my lips to his. He pulls me off the wall and walks backward until I feel him plop down on the small couch in the corner.

I reach down and he pulls his lips from mine as I yank his shirt off and throw it behind me. I crawl off of him and onto the floor where I’m facing him on my knees. I look up into his blue eyes as I unzip his pants.

“Lift your hips.”

He lifts them enough for me to pull his pants off along with his boxers as he kicks off his shoes. I lick my lips as my eyes gaze at him sitting naked before me. He reaches up and slides his hands in my hair and I close my eyes at the feel of the power those hands hold. It makes me want to melt into nothing.

Without a word, he lowers my head and I open my lips, knowing exactly what he wants. He gives me an inch at time. His hands control my head as his hips meets my mouth with each thrust.

I hear him moan as his fingers tighten and release my hair a few times. I open my eyes to look up at him, and he has his head resting back on the couch and his lips are parted. I suck him in deeper until he is all the way to the back of my throat. He opens his eyes and looks down at me. He smirks as he pulls on my hair, removing my mouth.

“What are you doing?” I ask with a matching smile.

He lifts me up onto the couch, laying me on my back, and is hovering over me in no time. He tears off my jeans and settles himself between my legs.

“You, Angel. I’m going to do you.” And with that, he thrusts into me, causing my breath to catch. He grabs my wrists and holds them down on either side of my head.

“Slade,” I pant as he slowly pulls out.

“Don’t worry Angel, this isn’t going to be slow.” And with that he slams into me as my moans and cries of ecstasy fill the empty bar.

*****

As I’m driving to the house, my phone rings. I pick it up out of the center console to see a blocked number again. I hit ignore then wait a few seconds before I search for Jessica’s number in my phone.

When I find it I hit send.

“Hello?” she answers slowly.

“I believe I told you to quit fucking calling me,” I say sweetly.

“How did you…uh....”

“I told you it wouldn’t be hard to find your number.” I look in the rearview mirror to see if Slade is still behind me.

She laughs. “It was probably just as easy as it was finding yours,” she says, no longer worried that I have her number.

“What do you want, Jessica?” Why is she calling me so late? I glance at the clock on the dash and it reads two forty five.

“I wanted to let you know that Slade was with someone while you were at work tonight.”

What? How does she know I’ve been at work? I look out all my windows to see if she is in a car nearby or something. There is no one else on the highway besides Slade and me at this hour. Wait. If she knows I was at work then how does she not know that Slade was there?

“I doubt that,” I say carelessly. She has no idea what she is talking about.

“I can prove it.”

Huh? “What do you mean you—” She hangs up.

I toss my phone into my purse as I exit the highway. What in the hell was that about? There is no way he was with someone tonight. I mean, I guess he could have been with someone right after he got off work, before he came up to the bar. But I have more trust in Slade than to believe that is a possibility. She’s just trying to make me second-guess him and that’s not going to happen.

We pull into the garage and I step out of the truck. “You okay?” Slade asks when he looks at me.

“Yes.” I smile. “You wore me out.”

He holds the door open for me with one hand while the other slaps me on the ass as I walk by.

I turn and face him once I am inside the house. “Why did you come in and see me tonight?”

He frowns. “I wanted to see you.”

“But why did you stay so late? You have to work in the morning.” I hate that Jessica has me questioning him.

He walks past me, heading to the bedroom, chuckling. “That has never stopped us before, Angel.”

I pause as I watch him enter our bedroom. That statement held truth, but didn’t answer my question. Courtney did say he was worried about my safety. Maybe that is the reason why he came up there. I already told him I won’t work nights anymore until we get everything figured out.

I walk into our room to find him undressing in the closet. “But why? You have to be up early for work in the morning.”

“You act as if it’s the first time I came to your work to see you,” he says sliding his jeans down his legs.

I reach up and run a hand through my hair. “I just don’t know why you came up there. You have to be tired. This weekend was crazy.”

He comes to stand in front of me, now naked. “Get undressed and come to bed.” He leans down kissing my head and leaves the closet.

I drop the subject and head to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SLADE

“Congratulations, Slade.” Micah pats me on the shoulder as we walk out of the courthouse. “I could have seen that decision going either way.”

I look over at him with a cocky smile. “I only saw one outcome.” My client walks by and turns to face me.

“Thanks, Slade.” He reaches out his hand. I shake it with a small nod then he turns and walks off with his wife.

Was he really innocent? No! My clients usually aren’t, but the evidence wasn’t strong enough against him.

Many people have asked me how my family and I defend the guilty, or the most asked question, “
How do you sleep at night?”
Very easily actually!

Every person deserves the right to a fair trial. Every person deserves someone on their side, defending their freedom.

I’m that guy!

Micah steps to the right to shake the hand of a female attorney we know when I catch sight of a guy walking down the hallway about to enter a courtroom. I only get a quick side view of him, but he looks familiar. That’s not unusual here, though, we always run into repeat offenders. Sometimes they have the money to get their own attorney. Sometimes they are broke and get one assigned to them.

“Slade. Congratulations.” Natalie gets my attention.

“Thanks.” I say reaching out to shake her awaiting hand.

Natalie is an attorney at another law firm in town. They are a multimillion-dollar company that handles a bunch of pro bono accounts.

“It’s good to see you again. It’s been too long.” The way her brown eyes look me up and down I can tell she is referring to the last time we spent our time together naked.

I pull my hand away from hers and turn to speak to Micah but she speaks again. “How about I take you out to lunch to celebrate?” she asks, giving me a flirtatious smile.

“No, thank you.” Her face falls before she can mask her surprise at my dismissal. “We should get going,” I say to Micah. He smiles brightly at Natalie as he says his goodbye. I turn from her and walk to the front door with him following after me.

“What was that about?” he asks as we come up to my car.

“I’m not hungry.” I shrug. He gets into the car and looks over at me.

“You slept with her,” he states, not sounding surprised.

I laugh. “That’s not what I would call it.” There was no sleeping involved.

“So Natalie finally got her way, huh?” He smirks.

You have to know Natalie to understand what that statement meant. She gets anything and everything she wants. If her money can’t buy it, she will use her perky tits and tight ass to get what she wants. Although I slept with anyone I wanted, I never brought girls to the office or mixed business with pleasure. But I was working a case in New York City, where she is from, and I allowed her to take me out for some drinks. I ended up staying at her high-rise condo, having a three day sex fest with her.

“Yep. I had a lapse of judgment.”

Micah looks over to me. “So that’s what you’re calling the women of your past?”

I look over at him with a serious expression on my face. “Yes.”

He reaches over and pats me on the shoulder. “Well, just a little word of advice. You may want to make that more clear next time you see Natalie. She is not the type that takes kindly to rejection.”

I should have told her I was in a relationship, but if I know Natalie, she already knows my relationship status. It doesn’t matter how much of herself she wants to throw in my face, I would never cheat on Angel.

I pull my cell out of my pocket when I feel it vibrate. It notifies me that our house alarm was just set to away.

I go to my recent calls, find Angel’s name, and hit send.

*****

SAMANTHA

I throw Nadia in reverse and back out of the driveway. How could I have missed that last night? How did I not hear my phone beep from a message?

I put the truck in drive when I hear my phone playing Slade’s ringtone. “Hello?” I say, pulling out of the neighborhood.

“Where are you going?”

I look around to see if Slade decided to come home for lunch or something. “Just leaving the house,” I reply when I don’t see his car.

“Where are you going?” he asks again.

“What’s with the interrogation?” I snap. His questioning is adding to my already pissy mood.

“I just got notified that you set the alarm to away, and I was wondering where you are off to. You are off work today,” he states.

His statement makes me pause. “Why were you notified?” I ask slowly.

“I have the security system linked to my phone.”

Of course he does. Sometimes I hate technology. “I’m heading to your mother’s house for lunch with the girls.”

“I see.”

“How was court?” I try to get the image of him and the other woman out of my mind.

“It went well,” is all he says.

I don’t usually ask him about work, and he never offers much information about it. I haven’t figured out why he keeps most of that from me. I guess he is just one of those people who likes to keep work separate from his home life, and I can understand that.

“That’s good. Are you done for the day?”

“No. Micah and I are heading back to the office right now.”

“Okay. Well I hope you have a good day.”

“You too, Angel. Call me when you leave.”

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something seems to be off. He seems really short. Maybe court didn’t go as good as he said it did.

“I love you,” I say, trying to cheer us both up.

“I love you too.”

I hang up and drop my phone in my lap. As soon as I do the picture of him and the blonde comes to mind. I woke up this morning and discovered that Jessica had sent me a message last night after we had hung up. I never looked at my phone again after that or I would have seen it. As soon as I opened it, I closed the picture. I couldn’t comprehend what I saw. He was not with someone before he was with me last night, I don’t believe it.

I pull up to Vivian’s house and walk up to the door. Holly opens it and steps aside for me to enter. “Hey girl,” she says cheerfully.

“Hey,” I respond with a lot less enthusiasm than she had.

“Something wrong?” She tilts her head to the side as her brown eyes lock onto mine.

“Just a little tired.”

She links her arm in mine and starts to drag me off to the kitchen. I put a smile on my face as I see Vivian pulling muffins out of the oven.

“I tried to get Courtney to take a late lunch today and come over,” Holly says as we sit down at the island.

“You know she told me her bank has a job opening.” I look at Holly.

She nods. “I told her to tell you. I thought you would take it.”

I frown. “Why would I take it?” Holly knows how much I like working at the bar.

“She meant she thought Slade would make you quit.” Vivian looks at us. “If so, you could go and work with Courtney.”

“Well, that won’t happen.” I shake my head stubbornly. “If I quit Larry’s, it will be because I choose to.”

Vivian gives me a warm smile. “Have you guys heard anything from the police about the break-in?” Holly asks, taking a bite of her muffin.

“No, if you ask me, they have no idea who it was and I don’t think they’re going to find out either.”

“I just find it odd,” Vivian says with a frown on her face.

I shrug it off, break-ins happen every day. We live in a very expensive neighborhood. It was storming and the power was out. Someone saw that as an opportunity. It’s not as if someone has a vendetta against us.

I pick up my phone when I hear it beep. I bite my lip when I see that it is a picture message from the bitch. I stand up from the table and walk to the hallway.

It’s a tad on the dark side, but I can tell the man on the bed that is lying on top of the woman is Slade. He has one arm holding up one of the woman’s legs and his face is in the crook of her neck.

The woman underneath him has her arms around his neck and her head thrown back.

I feel my body run cold. “What the fuck?” I whisper. This is not like the picture she sent me last night. It was much more blurry and they weren’t in the act. I could tell it was Slade, but he still had boxers on.

There is no doubt in my mind that they are having sex in this picture. I can’t place who the girl is. It could be Jessica, but I’m not one hundred percent sure.

As I continue to stare at the image, my phone beeps again informing me of a message from her. It takes me several minutes to pull my eyes away from Slade to read it.

Jessica:
Told you. He can’t be faithful.

I feel like my chest may explode from my heart pounding so hard. I shake my head slowly. There’s no way this is real. I mean, I’m seeing it with my own eyes, but this can’t be.

I hurry to read the last part of her message.

Like I said. You’re not the only one he crawled in bed with last night.

I close my eyes as relief washes through me. He was with me last night. I feel stupid for even considering anything else when I received the original pic.

“Everything okay?’

I jump at the sound of Holly’s voice and drop my phone. I laugh a little at my jumpiness. “Yep,” I answer cheerfully, though I now want to kill Jessica even more. The bitch is not going to give up.

Holly bends down to pick up my phone and I snatch it out of her hand.

I give her a smile as Vivian comes into the hallway to check on us. “How about planning that Bachelorette party?” I say.

Vivian returns the smile, but Holly looks at my phone in my hand and then to me with a frown.

“I’ll explain later,” I say linking my arm through hers as I drag her back toward the kitchen.

She slams me to a stop and whispers, “Was that a picture of Slade in bed with another woman? It has to be a lie. A fake,” she says in a rush. “He would not do that to you.”

“I know, Holly. If you promise to keep it between us, I will tell you everything later.”

She looks at me with those soft brown eyes and I get the feeling she’s going to start crying. “Hey, it’s okay. I promise you. Slade and I are great! I don’t believe for a second that he would do that. Let’s go plan your party.”

I don’t wait for a response as I walk us into the kitchen where Vivian sits with her laptop and several Las Vegas brochures for us to look through.

I feel bad for the lie. I was guilty of thinking for a second that Slade had been in bed with someone else. The only thing that picture proved was that Jessica wasn’t going to give up. I’ve never wanted to fight for a man before. Even when I had caught Jax in bed with Bridgette, the thought didn’t even enter my mind. I was willing to walk away and let her have him. But for Slade, I will fight dirty and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Jessica has no idea who she’s playing with.

*****

“Explain,” Holly starts in as soon as we walk out of the Longs’ front door.

“Jessica sent me that picture just to piss me off.”

“I don’t understand. Why is she sending you pictures of him in bed with another woman? You know he used to sleep around.”

“She tried to tell me that was him last night.” Holly goes to speak but I place my hand up. “I was with him all night last night.”

I turn to look at her as she opens the passenger door to Nadia. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going with you. Micah can bring me back later.” She jumps into the truck without another word.

I walk around the truck and get in. As soon as I start the engine, she speaks again.

“Let me see the picture.” She holds out her hand for my phone.

I dig into my purse and pull it out. Once I bring up the text, I hand her my phone.

She squints as she brings my phone closer to her face. “That doesn’t even look like Jessica.”

“I don’t think he even ever slept with her from what I understand.” I lean my head back against the headrest. “Of course, I don’t have a list of every chick he has slept with, so there is a possibility he did.”

“I don’t think so,” she says, still observing the picture. “I remember Micah telling me the night she slashed his tires that the first time he had met her was the night you called interrupting them in his bed. I’m pretty sure he never met up with her again.”

I knew he slept around, but the thought of him being in bed with someone had never crossed my mind. I feel a smile creep up my face knowing that she didn’t get her way that night.

We sit in silence as she goes back to looking at the picture. “Isn’t that Bridgette?” she says in surprise.

I grab the phone from her hand and look closer. Sure enough, the girl taking the picture is standing across from a mirror. You only get a side view of her and even though it’s dark, her blonde hair stands out enough for you to see that it’s her.