Kash waited a beat before turning to me. He took one look, and all the tension lifted from him as well. He reached for me at the same time I went to him, climbing into his lap.
I had missed him. I mean, I hadn’t missed him.
I was letting him hold me. Yeah. I was doing him a favor.
It wasn’t long, maybe twelve minutes or so, until we pulled into a basement garage of an apartment building. When the SUV stopped in front of some elevators, Kash nudged me. “Bailey?”
His arms felt so warm, so strong. Sheltered and protected. That’s what I felt, along with a whole host of butterflies and tingles that I knew I shouldn’t be feeling. My blood was on a slow boil, getting warmer and warmer the longer I stayed in his lap. It was so hard, my eyelids felt like a pound of cement were on them, but I forced them open and tipped my head back to look at him.
Then I paused.
God.
Beautiful. Dangerous. Mysterious. And I was in his arms.
My tongue swelled up. A whole host of sensations were sending my body on vibrate. Gone was the exhaustion, in that mere look, as his eyes were smoldering down at me. I felt zapped, as if he had touched my chest and gave me an electric jolt.
I was breathless too.
Unthinking, unable to think, my hand raised, and I touched his cheek. “You’re back.”
He stilled, blinking a second, then a slow grin spread—and holy hell. That smile, in that moment, in the way he was looking at me, holding me, and my heart was stampeding out of my chest. My whole blood just wooshed over itself, a wave crashing hard on me, and I was sputtering in its wake, in his wake.
I wanted him.
“I came back.”
The world went away.
It was only Kash and me, and his eyes went to my lips, holding there. I was yearning for it, for him. I wanted to feel his mouth on mine. I wanted to feel more, so much more, but his mouth first and foremost.
I was lifting up.
He was leaning down—
His phone started ringing.
Just like that, the spell was broken.
Kash’s entire body turned into a cement block. He drew in a sharp breath before turning his head away from mine. He warned, darkly, “Someone needs to be in the hospital or a body bag, otherwise I’m going to be putting them in the hospital or a body bag myself.”
An awkward cough as we waited. Then, “It’s Mr. Francis. Matthew. Sir.”
“What is it?” Kash clipped out, a savage growl right behind it.
“There’s a problem at the penthouse.”
“Fuck.”
Exactly.
I hated it, my entire body was protesting, but I was sitting up. Feeling me move, Kash helped deposit me beside him. He turned his back to the guard, looking at me straight on.
“You want to come with me?”
There was no real question there. “Hell yes.”
I was suddenly awake, so awake I didn’t think I’d sleep again.
He closed his eyes, groaning again before shifting back in his seat. “Take us to Matt’s.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
We pulled up to the front of the Francois Nova. As soon as the SUV paused in front of the circling glass doors, Kash didn’t wait for his guard. He opened the door and whisked me out of there. The doorman just barely had time to nod a greeting to us.
Once in the lobby, I felt the attention from everyone in there. It wasn’t locked down like it had been when we were there before. Hotel guests. The concierge staff. The front desk attendant, who I saw was the same as when we had stayed. His eyes were wide, taking us in. Kash was moving so fast that the guards had to run in to get ahead of us. Kash dropped my hand but linked our index fingers. He turned, heading to the elevators. A guard got there just in time, and the doors opened so we didn’t have to wait. Kash dropped my finger, his hand going to the back of my elbow.
Once we were in, the guard came with us.
As we rose to the penthouse floor, his thumb began rubbing the inside of my elbow.
Good Lord. It was doing all sorts of things to me.
The doors opened. We arrived, and raucous laughter, yelling, cheering, and bass-heavy music hit us full blast. Something illegal was being smoked, too.
“Come on! Drink it. Down it.”
Kash’s eyes narrowed.
He let go of my elbow, striding forward. The guards went with him, though they didn’t look like they were there to protect him. The room opened to a wide living room. Kash motioned for one of the guards.
The guard walked to the entertainment console and the music was cut.
“Hey!”
Matt was lounging on one of his white leather couches, his pants unzipped and pulled down to show the top of his hip bones. He was shirtless, his hair ruffled, and he was holding a joint. He was in the process of bringing it to his mouth for a drag when the music cut. It took a full second before that filtered in, and he turned, looking, looking, then lighting up when he saw Kash.
“Hey! It’s Kashy. Hey, Kashy.”
His eyes were dilated, and he couldn’t even sit up. He was sluggish. After he couldn’t get up on the second attempt, he just let gravity pull his body back down into the couch. His feet never moved, outstretched on the floor. The girl sitting beside him only had on a bra and panties. Nothing else. And she wasn’t the girl he’d been necking with at the club.
The rest of the room was filled.
Chester and Tony were in similar stances, but on a back couch in the corner. And unlike Matt, who didn’t have a girl actively sucking his dick, theirs were out. There was Matt’s club girl. Her lips were guzzling on Chester’s dick. The girl sucking Tony’s dick might’ve been a staff member from the club. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t looking too close.
A few other girls, in varying states of dress, were still dancing, hair extensions in the air, bottles of booze waving around.
“Jesus Christ, Matt.” Kash stepped further into the room, taking everything in. “We just left the club twenty minutes ago.”
Matt’s smile was sloppy drunk as he reached for a beer on the table by him. “I was getting fucked up before we left the club.” He frowned, remembering something … something … something—and he searched, finding me. “Hey! It’s my sis—”
“Stop!” Kash cut him off, taking two steps to his couch. He grabbed the joint, stuffed it out, and knocked the beer out of Matt’s hand. “Everyone out. Now!”
The girls whined.
Kash motioned to his guards. “Get ’em out.”
There was no arguing with him.
One girl was still swinging her arms around. Now she was tripping. She was falling backward, and she fell right into the pool that extended out from Matt’s room and went over a glass-bottomed patio, so it looked like you were swimming over the edge of the building.
Water splashed all over the floor, but then she was up and smoothing her hair back. Her vodka smashed on the floor, and her bra had fallen off from the impact with the water. Two inflatable boobs stood straight out. “Whooey.” She laughed, falling back to float on her back. Her arms stretched out in the water. “This is nice.” Her eyes were closing.
Kash motioned to one of the guards. “Get her.”
The guy waded into the water, starting to pick her up and pull her to the edge. She stiffened. “Hey. What? Who are you? No! What are you doing? No!”