He waved his hand in the air. “Pay, don’t pay. I know quite a few papers and magazines that will pay good for pictures of Sully with his little fairy. And I got plenty to spread around.”
“If you do this,” I spoke through gritted teeth. “I will make it my personal mission to destroy you.”
“You’re a real firecracker, ain’t you?” He looked me up and down.
I was going to need a shower after this meeting. I could feel the slime on my skin.
“Tell ya what,” he said. “I’ll cut you a discount. Half a million.”
I wanted to tell him to shove his ‘discount’ up his ass, but I didn’t. That wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities, but I had a bad feeling there was a catch. He didn’t take long to reveal it.
“And you.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped.
“Mirage pays me half a million and I get a night with you. You get the pictures and a signed statement that I’ll never reveal those pictures to anyone.”
I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck himself, but snapped my jaw shut again. There had to be some way to use what he’d said against him. I stood. “We’re done here.”
“Suit yourself.” He shrugged. “You’ve got until the end of the week or I go public.” He reached down and grabbed his crotch. “You’ll love what I got for you.”
The thought of him touching me, of me touching him, made me feel sick. I hurried away without another word. I needed to get to Mirage and tell DeVon about the counter-offer. I swore under my breath as I thought about how my boyfriend was going to react to the proposition. Mayflower would be lucky if all he ended up with was a lawsuit.
I went straight up to his office. Melissa wasn’t at her desk, so I just went straight in. When we’d first met, I’d made a habit of barging in, usually fuming about something or other. Now, I still rarely knocked but my mood was usually a better one.
“You’re never going to believe what that bastard want...” My voice trailed off as I realized the office was empty. I looked towards the private bathroom, but the door was open. I frowned and looked at my watch. It wasn’t lunchtime. Maybe he had a meeting. I turned and headed back out to wait for Melissa. She always knew where DeVon was. We joked that she was his work-wife and I knew she appreciated that I understood her relationship with DeVon. There was no jealousy there, only love and admiration.
“Krissy.” She looked surprised to see me as she came out of the private administrator’s bathroom. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” I said. I was still a little nauseous, but after what I’d just been told, that wasn’t exactly surprising. “Is DeVon at a meeting?”
If I hadn’t known Melissa so well, I wouldn’t have noticed the slight lift to her eyebrows or the surprise that flitted across her face. Her expression quickly settled into the polite mask of a professional.
“Melissa?” I tried to keep my voice even.
“DeVon hasn’t been in yet,” Melissa said. “And he’s not expected in at all today.”
“Where is he?” Concern and anger were warring inside me. He hadn’t known for sure that I was coming in, so him scheduling off-site meetings without me wasn’t anything to get worked up about.
Melissa’s mouth tightened minutely. “I don’t know where he is, Krissy. I’m sorry.”
I walked towards the elevator, my head spinning. Where was DeVon? Why didn’t Melissa know? And why hadn’t he told me? What was he hiding?
Chapter 9
DeVon
I hated lying to Krissy, even if it was more of a lie by omission than an actual lie. It wasn’t that I wanted to hide anyone from her, more that I was still processing things myself, and until I knew what I thought about this entire situation, I didn’t want to drag Krissy into it. The worst part of it was that I didn’t know if I could wrap my head around everything without talking to Krissy about it. I’d spent my entire life making decisions on my own, important ones, but over the past year, I’d come to see just how much I relied on Krissy. Not in a bad way, but more as a sounding board and someone to keep me accountable. She was the only person I didn’t feel like I needed to have complete control over, the only one who I let see me vulnerable.
I raked my hand through my hair as I got out of my car. As much as I prided myself on my strength and independence, my ability to take charge, I couldn’t help but wish Krissy was walking with me into Kitchen 24. Having her next to me would’ve helped keep me steady. I’d never met a situation I couldn’t handle, but this wasn’t anything I’d ever considered happening. Before Krissy, I’d always used a condom and I’d always made sure to ask about birth control for extra protection. Very few of the women I’d been with hadn’t been on the pill, too. In fact, I was pretty sure I could count the number on one hand, including my ex-fiancée, Haley. Sasha hadn’t been one of them.
She was waiting when I walked into the restaurant and I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t happy with the location I’d picked. It wasn’t exactly out of the way or hidden, but it wasn’t the kind of restaurant that celebrities frequented either. I hadn’t yet started Mirage when Sasha and I had been together, but I’d been talking about it and had already been a big deal at the agency where I’d worked before. I wondered that if, in Sasha’s mind, I had been supposed to ‘take her with me’ when I made it even bigger. She’d always wanted to go parties and meet famous people. It had turned her on to be around the rich and famous, and I’d been willing to oblige considering how wild she’d gotten. It hadn’t been until I’d ended things that I’d seen ‘wild’ hadn’t been the right word to describe her. Obsessive, maybe even a bit psychotic.
I didn’t want that crazy anywhere near Krissy. Not that I didn’t think Krissy could handle herself. More that I didn’t want her to need to. If it hadn’t been for what Sasha had said, I would’ve told her to leave me alone and threatened her with an arrest if she came near me or Krissy. Things, however, weren’t that simple.
I had a son.
Or, at least, that’s what Sasha claimed.
I hadn’t given her a chance to explain yesterday. I didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing what we were talking about. I trusted Melissa more than anyone except Krissy, but most of my employees knew they could come talk to me at any time. The last thing I needed was some client or someone else barging in in the middle of Sasha’s explanation. Kitchen 24 was a nice place, particularly for someone like me who wasn’t exactly trying to hide, but wasn’t advertising who I was. Chances of running into someone I knew were slim.
“DeVon.” Sasha beamed at me as I approached the table. “I was beginning to think you’d picked this place so you could stand me up.”
I ignored the comment and sat down across from where she was sitting. Things like this were typical of Sasha and one of the reasons we lasted about a week. The sex had been good enough that I might’ve kept her around for a bit longer, but she’d been crazy enough that it hadn’t been worth it.
I quickly ordered when the waiter came by, keeping things simple. Sasha looked disappointed that I didn’t want to linger, but rattled off her order as well. The most expensive things on the menu, of course. I didn’t care. I could more than cover a meal. I was worried about what else she was going to try to weasel out of me and what the possibility was that I actually did have a kid.
“I suppose you want the story,” she said with a sigh. “I had hoped we could make some small talk first, share what we’ve both been up to for the past six years.”
“I want to know what happened and why you’ve waited six years to come to me.” I took a sip of my water, proud that I’d managed to keep my voice even.
“Well,” she said coyly. “One night, you stuck that huge cock of yours–”
“Knock it off, Sasha,” I interrupted. “You know what I mean.”
She nodded, a half-pout on her face, the kind that she liked to use when someone spoiled her fun. “About six weeks after we...parted ways, I found out I was pregnant.”
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“You told me you were on the pill,” I said.
She ducked her head and peeked up through her lashes. “I lied. I’m sorry. I just wanted you so badly and I knew if I told you I wasn’t on the pill, you wouldn’t wait until I’d used it enough for it to be effective. I wasn’t sure you’d want to fuck me without it.”
With every moment that passed, I was regretting more that I’d fucked her in the first place.
“So you’re telling me that, basically, we hit in that small percentage of condoms that failed to prevent pregnancy?” Something passed across her eyes that told me that wasn’t the whole story. “Sasha, what aren’t you telling me?” I felt my voice automatically go to that place it went when I was in Dom mode.
It still worked on her. I watched her body automatically shift into the posture of a Sub. Shoulders down, chin down, gaze lowered. A year ago, her response would’ve gotten me hard in seconds and I would’ve ordered her into the bathroom for a quickie. Now, I found the lack of push back to be a turn-off. It hadn’t been until Krissy that I’d realized that’s what I’d truly wanted, someone to make me work for domination.
“I may have...helped.”
“Sasha!” I practically barked her name.
She cowed and I got the impression that she was trying to show me that she was still my Sub, even after all these years. “The last two times we had sex, I poked holes in the condoms you had with you.”
My stomach twisted and I stared at her, sickened. How had I ever been with someone like her?
“I just didn’t want you to leave me.” Her voice was pleading.
I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly. I had to get the whole story before I left. If this was really my kid, I couldn’t just abandon him because I was pissed at Sasha.
“And you weren’t with anyone else?” I opened my eyes as I asked the question.
“No.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “It had been two weeks before I met you since I’d last had sex, and I hadn’t done it again until two months after things ended between us.”
I tried not to think about the fact that she’d fucked someone else while pregnant with my child. There was always the chance she was lying. It wasn’t like she was the most stable of people.
“Why didn’t you come to me as soon as you found out?” I asked.
“I was afraid you’d tell me to get rid of him and I couldn’t do that. He was our baby.”
That just proved how little she knew me. I’d never have tried to force a woman into doing something she didn’t want to do. I would’ve taken care of her and the baby from the beginning, been as involved as she wanted. I might not have been looking to have a family – especially not then and especially not with her – but I’d never have shirked my responsibilities or made a child pay for something he had no control over.
“I tried making it on my own these past six years, but it hasn’t been easy,” she said. “Always scraping by. Working two jobs. And then, for the past year, Emmett has been asking about his father, wanting to know why his friends had daddies but he didn’t.”
I shifted in my seat. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea of being a father.
“I realized that I wasn’t being fair to Emmett by denying him the chance to meet you,” she continued. “I’d just been trying to think of the right place and time to tell you. Then I got laid off at my main job and my hours were cut way back at the diner where I’d been working, too.”
My eyes narrowed. Here it came, the pitch for money.
“I stayed away as long as I could,” she said. “Trying to make the best of it. I picked up odd jobs, but it was barely enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Things started getting really bad this week and I knew I didn’t have a choice. You’d never let your family starve.”
I frowned. She was right. No matter how psycho she was, I’d never risk my child’s life simply because I loathed the woman who’d given birth to him.
“I want to see him.”
She shook her head. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Excuse me?” I placed my hands flat on the table, then fell silent as the waiter put down our food. After he walked away, I continued, “You come to me, tell me I have a six-year-old son who I never knew anything about, talk about how you weren’t being fair to him by keeping him a secret, and then ask me for money, but I can’t see him?”
“I can’t let you into his life if you’re going to just abandon him again.”
“There’s no again here, Sasha. I didn’t abandon him in the first place. I didn’t know he existed.” I fought to keep my voice calm. Yelling wasn’t going to solve anything.
“Come on, DeVon. We both know you’re not the kind of guy who sticks around. How can I know you won’t hurt him? Spend a couple weeks with him and then decide you’re bored. I can’t let you discard him like you did me. I need to know you are going to be a part of our lives before I let you in.”
Our lives. Shit. That didn’t sound good.
“We were good together, DeVon,” Sasha said as she leaned across the table towards me. “Don’t you remember? That last night...how amazing it was? All the things I did for you. The things you did to me. We can have that again. All of that, and more, because this time, we have Emmett to keep us together.”
Against my better judgment, the memories of that night flooded forward and I couldn’t help but remember it all, including the person I’d been back then, the one before I’d met Krissy.
Chapter 10
DeVon
I’d stopped using my hand to spank her when my palm started hurting, but her skin still wasn’t that pretty shade of deep red that meant it was going to bruise and that’s what I wanted.
And Sasha was all about giving me what I wanted.
When I’d met her a week before, I’d taken one look at those curves and had known that I’d be fucking her by the end of the night. We hadn’t even made it that long. Less than twenty minutes after she’d told me her name, she’d proven what I’d suspected from moment one. That mouth had been made for sucking cock.
The seven days that followed had been filled with one depravity after another. All I had to do was mention it and she’d do it. She never wanted it gentle, which was good because I didn’t do that. I made her come¸ of course. I always made my girls come. But she kept asking me for more, as if wanting to prove that she was my perfect Sub.
She’d gone down on me under a table at one of LA’s finest restaurants. Let me tie her up in all sorts of positions. I’d used dozens of different toys on her. Spent three hours making her come until she was so sensitive that even a breath of air was too much. Spent two hours edging her and then sent her home with instructions to masturbate every hour but not to come until I saw her again that evening. She’d come the moment I entered her and had almost squeezed my dick right off. I’d fucked her mouth, her cunt, her ass, used toys in her ass while I fucked her pussy and vice versa. I’d spanked her, used nipple clamps, a flogger.
Then there was today. I’d mentioned at some point during all of the fucking that I’d yet to fuck a woman with a clit piercing. A half hour ago, she’d showed up at my apartment wearing only a trench coat. She’d opened it in the hallway, parted her legs and then spread her lips with her fingers, showing me the swollen bundle of nerves that now had a shiny silver hoop through it.
That should’ve been my first clue that her eagerness to please was bordering on dangerous.
Instead of getting a clue, however, my blood had rushed straight to my cock and I’d told her that she’d gotten pierced without my permission and she’d need to be punished. That’s when I’d started spanking her with my hand. Then I’d switched to a crop. Now, I was going to push her further than before.
“Turn over,” I said.
She immediately did as I said, wincing as she laid on her back.
“Spread your legs.”
She obeyed.
I slapped the crop against my hand, the sound echoing i
n the spare room. My apartment wasn’t quite as big as the penthouse I wanted eventually, but I at least had one room to sleep in and another to play in. I waited until her eyes were following the crop before flicking out my wrist.
She screamed as the tip of the crop hit directly at the place where her clit had been pierced. She writhed on the bed, unable to put her hands between her legs to protect her sensitive flesh. Her wrists were bound together by silk. If she pulled too hard, the cloth would start to cut into her flesh. Her ankles weren’t bound, however, and her legs kicked.
I waited for her to quit moving, enjoying the way her breasts jiggled with the movement. Her nipples were already swollen, the tips jutting up, having been bitten and pulled until they were impossibly hard. My mouth had left other marks across the tanned flesh.
This time, I made sure the flat of the crop was what came in contact with her clit. Her back arched and her mouth opened, but no sound came out. I put the crop down and watched. There was only so much abuse certain body parts could suffer without permanent damage and I never did anything like that. She’d be feeling all of this for a while, but I didn’t want to truly harm her.
When she finally fell back on the bed, legs splayed open side, I climbed onto the bed. I stretched out and, without any preamble, began to run my tongue over the piercing, the metallic taste mingling with Sasha’s own musky flavor. Whimpers fell from her lips as I focused all of my attention on her sore clit. I licked and sucked until she finally came, the stimulation too much for her to handle. Her entire body went limp as she passed out. I used the time to roll a condom over my stiff cock.
A shudder passed over her as I started to slide into her. I’d purposefully avoided paying any attention to her pussy, leaving her dripping, but tight. I went as fast as I could without hurting myself, watching the strain of initial penetration play across her face. When I came to rest inside her, I leaned forward until the base of my cock pressed against her clit.
She cried out, her hands tugging at her restraints. I maintained my position as I started to move. Every thrust rubbed against that spot inside her, but also pressed against her clit with what had to be painful pressure. When I sped up, she began to beg me to finish.