Chapter 9
HARLOW
Inestled up to Jules, sweat still drying on our skin.
"Did you bring me in here because you wanted to talk about something?" I asked, not wanting to ruin the moment.
He lazily traced circles around the bruise he left on my breast. His hand stilled. He exhaled sharply. Irritated.
For once, I didn't think it was aimed at me.
"If you don't want to talk about it…” I started.
"I have to," he said. "I should have told you before I got sidetracked." He picked his head up and smiled sardonically. "It's your fault, you know. If you weren't so fucking hot."
I poked him in the chest with my fingernail. "I'm not so hot you couldn't have focused if you wanted to."
He caught my finger and brought it to his lips, kissing me, before letting it go again.
"Says you. You don't understand how distracting you are." His voice was joking but his eyes were troubled.
"Out with it then," I insisted. Evidently it was my turn to be the bossy one.
He dropped his head back and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "You know how I said Forrest asked me for a favor?"
"Yes," I said carefully. "He wanted you to kill one of us?"
He glanced back over at me. "No."
"Something worse?" I asked tentatively.
Okay, I wasn't sure what could be worse, but men like Forrest had no moral compass. Nothing was off the table.
"He asked me to rewire his house in the Hamptons." Jules winced.
For a moment I thought I misheard. He sounded like his father asked something horrible.
"Is that all?" I asked slowly. "Was he asking you to work for free?"
Jules snapped his fingers. "That might be it. I knew he was evil."
We both managed a short laugh.
"No, I think it was his intention to pay me," Jules said after a moment. "He's asked me before. Believe it or not, he tips well."
"Not," I said immediately. Forrest Cross didn't seem like the kind of man who'd bother with a little detail like tipping well.
"That's fair," Jules said. "I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it."
"You might have to show me the paperwork later," I said jokingly. "When did he want you to do this?" This whole thing was starting to smell more suspicious than a week-old corpse in the sun.
“Tomorrow,” Jules said, curling his lip. "I have jobs booked but I told him I'd put them off, if he agreed to stay away from me and Cass. It seemed like a good trade-off.”
"Right," I said, Thoughts turned around in my mind. "Did he look like he had an ulterior motive?"
"He definitely had an ulterior fucking motive," Jules said. "I can think of a few off the top of my head. Either he plans to be there next week and wants to try to make amends or…"
"Or he wants you out of the city and away from me," I said. "If that's the case, then he knows about us."
"Or he suspects," Jules said. "Cass works for you. It's not too much of a stretch to think he wants me out of the way because Cass is my brother. He knows I'd do anything to protect him, including protecting you. He might assume I don't know anything about your relationship with him."
"Right." Of course, this was all speculation.
We had no real way of knowing what Forrest knew.
It made sense that he might want one of his sons away from impending trouble.
On some level, he must still care. Thinking of him as a cold, unfeeling monster was easy.
He was one. But for some reason, he wanted Jules safe.
"Is he trying to reach out to Cass?" I asked. "Cass works for me, but that doesn't mean we're involved."
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say Yvette filled him in on your relationship with my brother," Jules said regretfully.
"It's a good thing you kept your distance then," I said. "There wouldn't have been anything for her to tell right up until last night."
"Yeah, she didn't get much chance to do that, did she?" His nostrils flared.
"Her running in front of a moving vehicle wasn't your fault," I said.
"I know.” He shifted to get comfortable. "I was thinking how we should dispose of her. Then she disposed herself."
"Your thoughts didn't make her die." I leaned over to brush my lips over his cheek.
"Didn't they?" he asked. "If I was focusing better, I could have held her for longer. She might have run away after that cab passed."
"Right, and she could have stepped in front of a bus," I pointed out. "What happened, happened. Nothing we can do will change that." I paused. "This isn't about Yvette, is it?"
"How do you do that?" he asked softly.
"Do what?"
"You always have a way of knowing what I'm thinking."
"You blamed yourself for Yvette's death," I said slowly. "Then you were remembering your brother and blaming yourself for that too. What happened to Auggie? It isn't your fault. Not any more than what happened to Yvette.
"Believe it or not, we can't control everything in our lives." I managed a gentle tease, not wanting to make fun of his pain.
If he could turn back the clock and change things, he would, the same way as I would with my sister. I'd never stop blaming myself for what happened to her, but I didn't want him to blame himself for what happened to Auggie.
"I admire you," he said. Before I could respond, he pointed a finger right at my nose. "If you repeat that, I'll deny it."
"Okay, but can I ask why?" I smiled and wrapped my finger around his to pull it toward my chest.
"Because you didn't sit around and blame yourself for the stuff that happened," he said. "You got out there and you did something about it."
I could almost see him beating himself up about it in his mind, frustrated at the things he hadn't done. Things he never would have done, because it doesn't occur to most people to hunt down others and kill them.
That is, most people don't act on it.
"Does that mean you admire Boner and Archer too?" I asked.
He groaned. "I really backed myself into that corner, didn't I?"
I laughed softly. "A tiny bit."
"Fine," he said, on an exhale, "I admire them a little bit. But mostly I admire you. You took out six of them, all while building a restaurant empire."
"I thought you blamed my restaurant empire for…"
He pulled his finger out of mine and pressed it against my lips.
"I was wrong," he said. "And if you repeat that, I'll deny it too.
You did what you had to do. I did the same, in case you hadn't noticed.
I've been working all the hours I could possibly get instead of hunting the city for those monsters.
I lay awake at night thinking what I'd do to them.
But you, you were out there actually doing it.
Making them pay for the things they'd done.
I wish I met you sooner, when there were more of them. "
"You wish you were my sidekick?" I asked. "Robin to my Batman. Bullwinkle to my Rocky. One of the dwarves to my Snow White?"
He smirked. "I'm no fucking dwarf. My cock is the size of one."
I grinned, amused I'd gotten a rise from him. He was too much fun to bait sometimes, especially when I knew he'd take it and run with it.
For the record? He was right about his cock.
"Of course you're not. If you were, we know which one you'd be."
"I won't deny it, I'd be grumpy," he said, sounding the part. "Archer would be Doc."
I hummed my agreement. "Boner? Dopey." Not because he was a massive dork, but because he's the funny one. The one who'd do anything to make us laugh, including pretending to be dopey.
He glanced down, then back up again. "Cass would be happy. Who would be the other three?"
"Four is enough," I said quickly. I knew of women who had more boyfriends than me, like the singer, Abbie Hart, and Chelsea Miller, who was infamous for dating almost an entire rugby team. Four was enough for this girl.
"Besides, we don't need a bashful, sleepy, or a sneezy. We can cover those three things ourselves."
"Does that make Forrest the Evil Queen?" Jules asked.
"I'll remember not to eat any apples given to me by strangers," I said.
Although poison was more Hypnos' area than Zeus'.
On the other hand, if he wanted to kill me, I doubted a poison apple was out of the question entirely. He might substitute it with a poisoned avocado or tomato. You'd have to be evil to poison those, wouldn't you?
Or worse, a poisoned donut. I shuddered to think of it.
"Good idea," Jules said. "So the question is, what do I do about the favor to my father?"
I chewed my lip for a moment. "I think I can come up with a way to fit that into our plan."
"Are you going to let me in on it?" he asked, rolling me over and pinning me to the mattress again.
"When I've worked out the details," I said. Any other time, I would have teased him about being in a hurry, but there was nothing funny about this. "You might prefer a nice, quiet week down at the Hamptons."
"And leave you here? Not a fucking chance." He nudged my legs apart with his knees and rubbed his rapidly growing cock against my pussy. "You need someone to be on the lookout for you."
"You call this being on the lookout?" I teased as he slid his cock inside me.
"Definitely," he agreed, leaning down to bite my earlobe. "No one is going to get past me when I'm fucking you."
"Mmhmm," I said, not bothering to hide my amused skepticism.
I loved how he felt inside me, but he couldn't deny he was distracted right now. Thankfully, three other men were on the other side of the door, keeping watch. If anything went south, they'd let us know.
Right now, the only thing going south was Jules sliding his cock in and out of me, slowly and deliberately.
Gently compared to the first time, but stopping every now and again to bite and pinch me, trying to leave bruises wherever he could.
Marking me like he was tattooing my skin and etching his name on my soul.
He pushed his hand between us, stroking my clit with his calloused fingers.
"I don't want to think about that," he said. "I want to think about you coming. Don't make me slap you again."
"You say that like I'd mind," I said breathlessly.
For a moment, I thought he was going to pull out, flip me and smack me.
Instead, he kept going, working me harder with his hand and his cock. Inching me closer and closer until I came, crying out his name, begging him to come with me.
He did, slamming himself into me a couple of times before coming loudly. My name slipped from between his lips like he was making a wish.
I made one too, that we'd have a lifetime more of doing this. I had his whole body to memorize. To do that properly would take years. I didn't like doing anything half-assed.
If I could, I'd make sure we had all those years and then some.