CHAPTER TEN
TRAVIS
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“This is weird meeting on a Monday.” I sit at the table and let the server place the white napkin on my lap.
The guys and I meet every Wednesday for breakfast at Killian’s restaurant, Dune. It’s become even more important since Parker and Maddox got loved up. They are both engaged, and Parker and Aurora are expecting.
Not only is it not Wednesday, but it’s also lunchtime. It’s thrown my schedule, and I’m a man of habit. But I will never let these guys down.
Ever.
Our catch-ups keep us all connected and answerable to one another. Without going all Dr. Phil here, there is a darkness in all of us because of our pasts, and we see one another. We know when someone needs extra support, and we do it in that guy's way.
Mostly unspoken.
“Zayne and I had a clash in our calendars.” Maddox orders without looking at the menu. “I’m sure the Alliance Club isn’t pumping at lunchtime.”
“A wild assumption.” I smirk.
“Really?” he asks curiously.
I know he misses it. Being at the club with all that erotic energy and freedom.
“Bring Kyra out again and find out.” I hand the server my menu and shoot Maddox a wink. “I’ll have the salmon.”
“Fuck off. I’m marrying her. I’m not taking her to the club and having other men gawk at her,” he grinds out.
“She can handle it.”
“I’m not worried about her. I would prefer not to spend a night behind bars.”
“It might turn you on to watch her with someone. I’m just saying.”
Maddox drops his menu and glares at me, while Killian holds up his hand.
“No fighting.”
Is that so?
“Oh fine, so it’s okay at my club, but not here.” I lift my water and sip, giving him a look.
“Exactly,” Killian replies.
Parker punched me a few months ago at the club because he thought I was going to fuck Aurora. I wasn’t and had no intention of doing so. Well, unless they broke up. My point being, someone had to give him the nudge as he couldn’t see what was right in front of him. The woman he loved.
Their story is fucking sad. Like all of us, their past is dark, full of lies and abuse. Parker was using Aurora to get revenge on his dead father, but instead the two of them found a love that even I’m envious of.
The man himself walks in, tugs off his jacket, folds up his sleeves and sits. “Afternoon gentlemen.”
“He just got laid.” Zayne points his coffee mug at me then Parker.
“I didn’t fuck him.” I shake my head.
“I mean Aurora.” Zayne rolls his eyes.
“Do not talk about my wife’s body.” Parker glares at me.
“You need to get over it, Park. I never wanted her.”
“So you say.”
“Ignore him. He came for dinner the other night with her and dragged one of my gay servers out back for smiling at Aurora.” Killian butters a bread roll and bites into it. “Who resigned, and I’m sending you the bill for recruiting someone new.”
“Whatever,” Parker orders, then picks up his water glass. “But he isn’t. If that guy is gay, I’m the fucking president.”
Maddox starts quietly chuckling.
“It’s called customer service, Parker.” Killian shakes his head. “We tell our people to smile.”
“Well, he didn’t smile at me, but he did my pregnant bride.”
“Because they’re all scared of you.”
Parker grins darkly.
“Anyway,” Maddox interjects. “How was the date you went on?”
I’m not paying attention, so when nobody answers, I look up and glance around the table. “What? Me?”
“Yes. Your date?”
How the fuck do they know about the date I had with Brook on Saturday night? Or non-date as she refers to it.
Which is correct. It wasn’t a date.
It was step two in my plan to infiltrate her life and podcast so she can expose more truths about my father, and I can sit back and watch his perfectly curated life turn to ash.
I need to work out how I progress with more speed. I wasn’t counting on Brook being so against dating or me being so attracted to her, all we do is fuck.
It’s not productive.
Unless you are my cock, who is thrilled.
“I didn’t have a date. I took a woman out for a one-course meal and then lots of fucking ensued.”
“You paid for the entire restaurant for six hours.” Killian frowns. “And you ate one goddamn course?”
Oh, that’s how they know! Fuck, I’m losing my mind.
“I paid for it, get over it.” I sip my coffee.
“Wait a minute. Who did you rent a whole restaurant out for?” Parker leans closer.
The dick.
“A woman with great tits.” I take another sip, wink at a passing server who blushes, then look at Parker. “There’s no romance here, just great sex. Move on.”
“Who is she?” Maddox asks in that rough voice of his.
“Since when do you need to take a woman on a date to get down and dirty?” Killian asks.
If only they knew sex with Brook was so much better than just fucking one of the girls at the club. She isn’t going to like what I have planned tonight, in fact, she’ll hate it. She’s also going to hate how much she enjoys it.
I’ll make sure of it.
“Since I have bigger plans for her, which include destroying my father.”
The smile falls from my face, and I pick up my knife and fork. The silence is deafening. I take a bite of my salmon, and challenge any of them to get in my way.
Maddox and Parker have found closure.
Now it’s my time.
“I need her name and your assurance you won’t hurt her.” Maddox rests his arm on the table.
I snort. “Says the man who kidnapped his wife.”
“He has a point.” Killian nods.
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EARLIER THIS MORNING I gave my assistant a list of instructions, which had her snapping her eyes to mine after reading the email. I was standing beside her desk, like a micromanager, making sure she knew how important it was.
“Tonight, tonight?” Tiffany asked. “All this?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll see if the dock is available.” She bit her lip, shooting me another unhappy look.
“Make it happen, Tiffany!” I fired over my shoulder as I walked back to my office.
“Is this for a date?”
“It’s not a date.” I closed my door firmly.
She’s done her job well. I’m now standing on the end of my superyacht at the Skyport Marina in the East River, hands slid into the pockets of my tan chinos with dark sunglasses on my face, waiting for Brook.
The sun is hanging in the sky, and it’s still warm enough at night that my white button-down is sufficiently warm enough.
Which is important to note because a woman closely resembling Brooklyn McKenna is walking toward me wearing a pair of black leggings, what looks like a ski jacket, boots, and a knitted hat.
And dark sunglasses.
She looks ridiculous, and like she’s heading up a mountain.
“Forget your ski goggles?”
“The more information you give a woman, the more likely she is to dress for the occasion,” Brook replies, her eyes roaming my yacht.
“Where in New York, in the middle of September, do you feel a...” I lean forward to get the brand name. “North Face jacket is necessary?”
“You said dress warmly.” Brook shrugs, still not meeting my eye.
I walk down the gangway and reach out my hand. “Well, then welcome aboard Lady Alliance.”
“It’s...stunning.” She sighs.
Yes, it is.
The one-hundred-twenty-foot yacht was designed and built for me almost three years ago. I don’t use it as much as I’d like, but it’s one of my favorite toys. With summer coming to an end, and a sexy woman to impress—manipulate—I thought Lady Alliance would be the right tactic.
And it might keep my cock out of her sweet pussy so I can actually have more than a five-second conversation. Though I’m not counting on it.
And I hope I never desire anything so absurd in my life again.
“Is this yours?” Brook asks, glancing around at the polished wooden flooring on the teak deck, the white leather seating, and sparkling stainless fixtures.
Lifting my sunglasses as we step into one of the cabins, black marble countertops greet us.
“Stupid. Of course, you own it. I was just thrown. I thought your driver was taking me to...never mind.”
With my hand on the small of her back, I press closer, needing to smell her perfume and the smell of fresh soap on her skin.
“Where did you think my driver was taking you?”
“Nowhere.” She turns to me and finally lifts her face, removing her sunglasses, and I’m hit with the beauty of her bright blue eyes and long dark lashes.
Stay on track.
Ignore her beauty...or at least don’t fuck her all night.
I love that she’s impressed but can’t help thinking I missed something. Where the hell was I going to take her that required this much clothing?
Unless she’s using it as a tactic to not sleep with me tonight. To keep my eyes off her gorgeous body. Neither makes sense. She’s the one insisting we don’t date.
But there was that moment on Sunday morning when I dropped her off...when I slowly lifted my mouth from hers and, like I was drunk, I got lost in her eyes and saw my future.
Fuck, that was dumb.
Most terrifying moment of my adult life.
I left so fast, then five minutes later had to force myself to not go back.
Regardless, Brook is either going to melt in all those layers or she’s undressing.
“Let me take your jacket and hat.”
Without hesitation, she removes them, and I suppress my curse as I take in her black tank and leggings, which show off every single fucking curve. In her black heeled boots, she looks like a goddamn seductress. A sexy siren. A dark and dangerous sniper come to destroy me.
I’d let her.
When her hat comes off and her blonde hair tumbles down her back in waves, I lose the fight.
I take her hips tightly and cup her breast. “Trying to cover the goods, Brook?”
“Maybe I was feeling the cold.” She swallows, her eyes on my mouth.
“Ask me to kiss you.”
Her eyes glisten playfully. “No, I don’t think I will.”
Vixen.
She knows she doesn’t have to. My mouth slams down on hers as I press my body hard against hers.
Fuck, it’s been less than forty-eight hours and I’m starving for her.