Chapter 17
LOCKE
It was impossible to conduct an interview with a director of compliance candidate when all I could think about was the way Jett’s fingers had tasted in my mouth as he’d sucked me off last night.
When we’d returned to the room after our swim, I’d stroked us both off in the shower. It hadn’t taken much more than a heavy petting session under the hot spray before we both came over my fist and the shower floor.
Jett had settled himself in my bed before I’d finished brushing my teeth, which had prevented any awkward moment of my having to either man up and ask him to join me or let him return to his own room.
Which was why, when I’d woken hard and aching in the middle of the night, he’d been there to suck my cock. It had been dirty as fuck but had ended sweetly with him sneaking off to the kitchen and returning with the chocolate cake we’d never gotten to after the swim.
“… golf with Declan Hayward recently, and he said Truett Moore recommended…” The man droned on, dropping as many names as possible to impress me.
You want to impress me? Tell me how you’ll do the fucking job, not who you’re privileged enough to share a club membership with.
“I believe that’s all we need for now,” I said, trying not to sound as judgmental as I felt. “Minerva will keep you updated on next steps. Thank you.”
After ending the video call, I started a new one with my assistant.
“I already know what you’re going to say,” Minnie said as soon as her face popped up on the screen. “But remember, you got mad at me for cherry-picking candidates last time.”
I glared at her, ignoring her cute, familiar face and the new bangs I was still getting used to. “If this was my punishment, be assured, it worked.”
She shrugged and grinned. “You should be more aware of all the ways in which I seek to carry your burdens, Maris. And be more grateful.”
Minerva Willis and I had known each other for twenty years.
Her father had been my grandfather’s driver, and he’d had Minnie in the car or at the house with him enough for the two of us to become friends.
When it had come time to hire an assistant, my grandfather had sat me down and discussed that almost nothing else mattered in the role more than trust and discretion.
It had been a no-brainer. There was no one outside my family I trusted more than Minnie.
And since she’d already been working a few years by then as an admin at our office in Jersey City, she was also experienced.
She was as much of a workaholic as I was, going even further in taking continuing education classes whenever she had time.
When I’d taken over Maris Holdings in December, it had meant a life-changing promotion for her as well.
Thank god it hadn’t resulted in her treating me any differently than she had when she’d been a sassy eight-year-old.
“I’m grateful, Min. Keep the riffraff away. Forget what I said about cherry-picking. Please only send me the best cherries from now on.”
“My pick is Carina Bouchard from KLX. I’ll set it up for later today if possible. How’s it going there? Is everything ready for the tournament?”
I nodded, feeling a pinch of guilty regret that she couldn’t ever know the truth behind the Paxis Council. “Yeah. All good.”
She tilted her head. “And your new mistress is handling it all?”
I felt a cold flush roll over my skin like a rogue tide. “My what?”
“My replacement. Your new assistant. Gotta say, I’m a little jealous.”
I tried blowing out a breath of relief without changing my expression. Minnie was still pissed I hadn’t brought her. “Don’t be. He’s annoyed to be doing menial tasks. The man’s a diva.”
She knew I was teasing. “Where’d you find him anyway?”
“I told you, I met him in a bar a while back, then ran into him on that flight from Atlanta. He was looking for work. I needed someone friendly and gregarious for a short-term gig, so I figured it was a win-win.”
“You really need to leave the hiring to me. Straight talk, Locke, he does not sound like a cherry.”
I held in a laugh and hoped my face wasn’t turning red. “No. No, he’s not a cherry.”
“I could have picked you a cherry for that job, too.” She sniffed. I didn’t mind it when she was territorial, but in this case, it was a subject that needed to be closed.
“This is a personal event, Min. You know that. It’s not Maris stuff. Besides, you have enough on your plate as it is.”
“Speaking of my not needing to sully myself with your personal nonsense… Willow’s been trying to get ahold of you,” she said, giving me a pointed look. “Want me to forward her to Mr. Davis? Let him handle your personal business?”
Before I could call her out on her petty jealousy, Jett came wandering into the suite, sweaty in running clothes and with the tinny sound of bass-beat music coming from his earbuds. He moved past me into his bedroom as if I wasn’t even there.
Thankfully, the laptop camera was angled away from where he’d passed.
“No,” I said, clearing my throat. “Just ignore her. Or give her a professional ‘Mr. Maris is out of the office’ type response. Believe me, she knows we’re not in a relationship. She’s just not happy about it.”
Which was an understatement. The woman had blown up my phone before I’d finally blocked her number.
Minnie looked a little too gleeful. “Professional disdain. Got it. What else?”
“Will you please order Celeste lunch from Soletti’s? If she already has plans, she’ll eat it tonight.”
She looked up from her tablet. “I thought Celeste was headed to the Caymans with her friends?”
“Shit. Right. Okay, can you find out where she’s staying and send some flowers and a bottle of Dom to her room, please?”
She nodded. “I’d ask what you did to piss her off, but apparently, I’m not to involve myself in your personal—”
“Jesus, Min,” I snapped. “Fine, okay? I hired the guy because…” A million words came to mind. He challenges me. He’s hot. He makes me insatiably curious. He gives incredible head. He’s kind. He cares. He’s a terrible liar. He’s fucking beautiful.
I want him.
Jett chose that moment to come back out of the room, this time dressed in stylish but simple twill shorts, a solid-color T-shirt, and leather flip-flops. Clothes Minnie had arranged.
He moved quietly past me and out the door to the suite, once again ignoring me or giving me space and privacy for my call.
“Because there’s just something about him, Min,” I finally said in a low voice. “And I need to figure out what it is.”
I focused back on her after trailing him with my eyes. The look on her face was one of surprise but also affection and understanding. “Oh,” she said.
I blew out a breath. “It’s not a thing.”
“Mmhm.”
“Don’t do that. I’m serious. You know how I feel about relationships. And Locke Maris is hardly going to come out as… what? Bisexual? Give me a break.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
I closed my eyes and remembered she, herself, was bi, even though the last three people she’d dated were men. She’d dated a woman in high school for three years. It was just that I hadn’t liked Heather, so I tended to forget about her.
“You know what I mean,” I said.
“I do, but you’re still an ass. And I think your bad attitude is coming from fear. You can be bi without telling anyone about it, Locke. You can also be bi without doing anything about it.”
Of course, she was right. And I could admit to myself there’d probably been other times I’d been physically attracted to men in my past, but I simply hadn’t felt strongly enough to acknowledge it, let alone act on it. There’d always been plenty of women to hold my attention instead.
“Can we please stop talking about it? I’m bi. Okay? There. I said it. It’s just a surprise, is all. And learning this about myself doesn’t change my stance on relationships.”
She blew out a breath, the air making her bangs flutter. “No. I get it. Maybe it would have been different six months ago, but now we definitely don’t have time for anything serious.”
It was a conversation she and I had shared many times. We loved what we did for Maris, even before my grandfather had died. And we both recognized we were in prime career-building years. We could find love later.
But hearing her say it now made me feel… annoyed. Cheated somehow.
Stifled.
“You do,” I said. “You have time.”
She laughed. “Right.”
Her grin changed into a familiar expression of challenge. “If you don’t have time, neither do I.”
I knew what she was doing. We both did.
“Fine,” I said, unwilling to have this discussion right now.
“But if things change, Maris… you let me know.”
Instead of sitting in her smug righteousness, she jumped right back into work stuff, explaining the highlights of Carina Bouchard’s resume and then moving on to the other urgent items she needed from me today.
When we were done, I was exhausted, even though it was only one in the afternoon. Thankfully, it was lunchtime, and that meant getting to sit down for a meal with Jett. Every minute spent in his company entertained me in some way. He was a joy to be around, even if he was provoking or angry.
Thankfully, today he was neither.
His face lit up when I stepped onto the balcony and joined him at the table. “Ah, the hardworking CEO spares time for sustenance. Come. I’ve slain some PB&J for you.”
I took his outstretched hand and gave a mock bow over it. “If Roberto sends out such a sammy, I will literally suck your dick right here,” I said in a low voice.
His eyes widened, and he called out toward the kitchen. “Zuri! Change my order, please!”
The young server came rushing out of the kitchen door with a small tray of lemonade. “Absolutely. What would you like, Mr. Davis?”
He frowned before glancing at me and looking back at her. “You don’t need to be formal with me, even around the curmudgeon. It’s Jett, please.”
She looked nervously at me. How was it possible that everyone in my house saw Jett as the fucking messiah while they viewed me like a smoking volcano that might erupt at any moment?
“He’s right,” I said gently, trying to hide my annoyance. “It’s best to treat guests the way they would like to be treated, and please don’t be uneasy around me.”
She gave a hesitant smile. “Yes, sir.” Then she turned to Jett. “What would you like?”
“Any chance Roberto has peanut butter and jelly back there?”
She crinkled her face. “Zero chance. But he said he can make your favorite salad or grill you a piece of chicken if you don’t like the farro and butternut squash dish he has prepared.”
Jett smiled at her and shook his head. “The farro sounds amazing, Zuri. Thank you.”
I murmured my thanks as she set the lemonade glasses in front of each of us and disappeared again. Then I turned to Jett. “How has your morning been?”
He looked pleased by my interest. “I spent the first part of the morning helping Concetta and Zuri with flower arrangements for the bedrooms. Concetta wasn’t happy with the way they’d arrived from the florist. Then I consulted with my cousin Cas about which outfit to wear to what event this week because he has better taste than the person who picked out these clothes.
After that, I checked my email, drooled over my Instagram feed, and got a workout in. You?”
We spoke about preparations for the upcoming week, my ridiculous interview with the name-dropper, the time Jett met Sabrina Carpenter and had no idea who she was.
The most famous man Jett had ever hooked up with.
The most famous woman I had. Throughout it all, I felt a strange combination of relief that the conversation was so shallow and disappointment that I couldn’t keep listening to him talk.
I wanted to gather more tidbits of his life like I was walking along an endless beach collecting the seashells Jett loved so much.
No matter how plain each one might seem, all of them were special. And together, they made a unique and interesting collection.
I wanted more. I wanted them all. My fingers itched with need of them.
But when our plates were empty, he hopped up. “Welp, I’m headed to town to visit the market with Roberto. He said I could carry his bags.”
Before I could respond with anger, he laughed and fake-punched me in the stomach. “Joking, babe. Joking. Kind of.”
It was a flirty move, one which I was supposed to return with a fake punch of my own, maybe.
Instead, I reached for his wrist and pulled him to me until our chests collided.
Then I inhaled his gasp before taking his lips in mine to remind him which man in this house he was supposed to be serving.
Within seconds, I deepened the kiss simply to get more of him.
The little high-pitched whimper he let out was brief but satisfying. His surrender to my kiss was even more satisfying.
Until he pulled away.
“What time will you be done with work?” he asked with heated eyes.
I met and held them. “Whatever time you get back.”
The smile on his face was electric. “Then I guess I’ll hurry.”
My head spun with the mixed-up bullshit I’d told Minnie. The mixed-up bullshit I’d told myself.
And the very clear evidence that I was a bold-faced liar.