Chapter 10
Grace
Iscrewed up—no two ways about it. Zephyr”s defense of Angela had made me feel equal parts ashamed and envious. I wish I had someone in my life who”d stand up for me like he had for Angela.
I knocked on his apartment door before work, wanting to sort this out away from my office, where we would keep things professional.
A bleary-eyed Zephyr opened the apartment door in nothing but boxers. Holy hell! The man was delicious. He was built. Muscles, abs. Those thighs. Lordy, Lordy, my lady parts tingled something fierce.
He frowned but opened the door with a yawn, letting me in. He turned on his coffee machine as I stood in the small apartment.
He set a coffee in front of me and sat down on a dining chair. ”What”s up?” he asked after drinking half a cup.
Not a morning person, I thought, amused. He needed his caffeine.
I sat down next to him at the head of the table. ”I am sorry for how I talked about Angela. It was cruel and rude. I”m ashamed.”
He drank some more coffee. ”Thank you.”
”I…don”t know her and…” — I swallowed because the truth always made you vulnerable, but I was in the wrong here — ”I was jealous of her. Probably still am a little. No…definitely am, and not just a little. Damn it!”
Zephyr”s eyebrows shot up. ”Say what?”
I drank some coffee to have something to do as I regrouped. ”I”ve never had anyone defend me the way you did her, and it made me jealous. Look, I”m sorry. She”s your friend. I…it was not right, and I feel horrible. I”m not judgmental, Zephyr, I just—”
”It”s forgotten,” he cut in. ”Angela is a friend. I”ve never fucked her. I”ve never had sex with any of the girls at Big Daddy. Besides the fact that I don”t want to, it would hurt Angela”s feelings. The girls are her friends. I go there and hang out. I pay the girls. It”s the only way I can help Angela cause she won”t take my money or let me give her another job.”
Now, I felt like the lowest of all worms. He was helping his friend, and I was calling her his personal whore.
”Again, I”m deeply ashamed.”
”I”m not saying this to shame you, Grace.” He put his hand on mine. ”I”m telling you what my relationship with her is. I can”t have her dragged into any of this. I can”t have someone target her to get to me. You understand? She”s clean, and the only emergencies we”ve had recently have been when she was arrested for soliciting. Sometimes the cops get extra excited about having whores in the Quarter.”
He stretched then, and I think my ovaries shimmied with delight.
He rubbed a hand on his chest and smirked. ”You like what you see, cher?”
I nodded dumbly. All the blood from my head was down south, making me wet.
He stroked my cheek with a finger. ”Let”s be friends, Grace.”
I stared blankly at him. Friends?
”And if you finally let me in, we could be friends who fuck.”
And he”s back!
I got up. ”I”ll see you later in my office?”
”Yeah.” He grabbed my hand and tumbled me onto his lap. His erection bumped against my ass, and my hips moved, making him groan. ”You woke me up. The least you can do is make it worth my while.”
”How would I do that?” I asked huskily.
Looking into my eyes, he lowered his head and captured my lower lip between his teeth and nipped gently.
”Kiss me,” he mumbled.
I did. He was thorough. He nibbled, sucked, and ate my mouth out. By the time he raised his head, we were both breathing hard.
”Christ, you do things to me with just a kiss, Grace. I can”t wait to be inside you and see you come all over my cock, Little Tempest.”
I left after that before I took his boxers off and asked him to show how hard he could make me come.
The man was frying my circuits in more ways than one. I”d expected him to be a bitch about my apology; instead, he”d been gracious, immediately accepting that I was sincerely sorry and moving on. This was not a man who held a grudge. Zephyr was a good man, a kind man…who had the most delicious mouth in the world.
I couldn”t stop thinking about that kiss all day. I couldn”t stop thinking about coming all around his cock. Good God! I was in court for a sentencing hearing, and I was imagining having sex with Zephyr. It was mortifying.
When I returned from court, I smelled his cologne before I stepped into my office. I almost wanted to brace myself for the onslaught. He was potent. I”d never even had a crush on a man since I left Liam eight years ago. I”d been the Ice Maiden, and I liked it.
When I worked as a Public Defender in Sacramento and then in the DA”s office in San Francisco after my divorce—there had been no men and those who had tried had been rebuffed effectively. I moved to New Orleans because it was a promotion. I moved to New Orleans because I wanted to be in a place that had always been home to me. I moved to New Orleans in the hope that I”d be able to leave Liam and my marriage truly behind and find my heart again. I hadn”t expected to find my sex drive; it hadn”t even been a passing thought. I had a vibrator. I had Kindle Unlimited to read steamy stuff. I didn”t need a man.
”Hey, baby.” Zephyr brushed his lips against mine as soon as I stepped into my office.
All my preparation to deal with him only professionally went out the window.
Why was he kissing me? Were we dating? Was Annalee Grace Chauvin dating sexy as hell Z Doucet? Or was this how he was with all his women? The ones he ate out like they were his last meal.
”Hi, Zephyr.” I walked to take my seat and gain some semblance of advantage.
He didn”t question it and sat across from me in a guest chair. He looked gorgeous in jeans, a white t-shirt, and a blue button-down shirt that was open. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up, and I had the urge to run my hand over the hair of his forearms.
Unlike Blaze, who kept his hair long, Zephyr”s hair was shorter, not military crewcut short but wavy and thick. I felt like a teenager seeing her favorite boy band singer.
”We will meet the task force team in forty-five minutes. I wanted to prep you before that.” I turned on my computer to look through my notes.
Zephyr leaned back in his chair, watching me. I could feel his scrutiny, and it flustered me.
”I like you in a pantsuit,” he mused. ”Made me want to see what was underneath when you came over this morning.”
I wore a black with white stripes pant suit and paired it with a white silk shell. I was feeling warm and wanted to remove my suit jacket, but I knew he”d then see my erect nipples. My bra was no protection against the severity of my arousal.
I cleared my throat and ignored the sexual whatever that was making the air in my office thick and syrupy.
”We”ll work up a gambling history for you. We have an undercover cop working an organized crime case, and he”ll be your bookie.”
”So, I”m betting on sports?”
”Horses.”
”Is that because I do follow horse racing?”
”Yes, it seemed like the easiest approach.”
”How do you even know about my interest in horses?”
I smiled then. ”Z, it”s common knowledge.”
He raised an eyebrow.
I laughed. Didn”t he realize that everyone in the parish wanted to know what the Doucets were up to? They were New Orleans royalty. I didn”t even have to work too hard to get all the information I needed about Zephyr.
”You religiously attend the Louisiana Derby.” This was what had gotten us in the task force thinking about horse racing as Zephyr”s gambling predilection.
The Louisiana Derby was one of the premier events held at the Fair Grounds Racecourse and was a significant prep race for the Kentucky Derby, attracting top-tier 3-year-old thoroughbreds from around the country.
”I do, and it”s coming up in April.” Zephyr seemed perturbed that we even knew about his interest in horse racing.
”You”re going to be losing a lot of money on Risen Star Stakes next week.”
The Grade II race was part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby series, one that Jazz Sessions was a sponsor for.
”How much money am I losin”?” Zephyr asked.
I looked at my notes. ”Two million.”
”Fuck.”
”Yeah.” I grinned.
”The people in the circuit know I don”t bet, Grace.”
”Do they? Well, we”ll change that with this loss.”
Zephyr took a deep breath. ”Okay. And I don”t have money to renovate my house. What else?”
”You”ve been borrowing money from Blaze and Rome to feed your addiction. There will be a showdown of sorts. It won”t be public because that will be too obvious, but it will be seen by those who need to see it and spread the word.”
”And then?”
”Well, you will attend your first board meeting in a few weeks. During this meeting, the message will be loud and clear that you”re strapped for cash. We need to work with Rome on this.” I waited for him to digest all this information. I knew it was a lot. His reputation would take a nosedive. He was considered the good Doucet. And even after we sorted it all out, the taint of gambling would remain.
”Okay. You said no one but Rome, Blaze, and Gaia can know.”
”That”s nonnegotiable. We won”t even start if you want more people in the tent.”
He waved a hand. ”Angela needs to know. She hears I”m gambling, she”s going to lose her shit.”
Again, the green gods of envy stabbed me hard. She was important to him. I wanted to be as important to him. It was a fantasy. If we had sex, he”d be out the door after a few times at best.
”I don”t know Angela, Z and—”
”Nonnegotiable. I won”t have her worrying about me. That”s going to trigger her back to drugs and alcohol, and I can”t have that.” Zephyr”s jaw was tight. ”I trust her. Implicitly. With my life.”
”You will be trusting her with your life if you tell her. The Volkovs find out you”re playing them, they will kill you.”
”They can try,” he replied cockily. ”They”ve been tryin” with Rome, Gaia, and Blaze, and they haven”t succeeded.”
”They already tried with you,” I screamed. ”What did you think the bomb at your house was? A welcome-to-the-neighborhood present?”
He smiled then. ”Come on, sha, you talk like this, and I”ll think you care about my sorry ass.”
I sighed. ”Z, please.”
”The bomb was for Hugo.”
There was a distinct possibility. Hugo, Zephyr”s cousin, had been at his home when the bomb went off. Hugo had had information about the money laundering scheme. We didn”t have a case against him, but the valuable information he gave us had helped the Feds get their plea deals. It helped that Rufus Stark, their prime suspect, was murdered. It was also a fact that Hugo”s brother Yves had, in fact, been beaten to death by the Volkovs because he was going to talk. We had to tread carefully. Very carefully. If something happened to Zephyr during this operation, I would not be able to live with myself.
”Okay, you can tell Angela,” I finally relented. ”But that”s it. No one else.”
”I”m still a little concerned as to why you don”t want Henri in the know.”
This was a tough one. I knew the Doucets looked up to him, but I had a bad feeling about Henri Allard. I had no reason to except a gut feeling, which was not something you could take to court.
”Angela or Henri, you choose.” I knew who he would pick, and he nodded, giving me a small victory.
”Once we”re sure the grapevine knows about your financial difficulties and isolation from the Doucets, we believe Alina Volkov will reach out to you.”
”And then what happens?”
”Then, we trap those bastards.”
He grinned. ”I like it when you talk dirty like that, cher.”