He spun me around to face him, dipping his head to kiss me deep. "I'm dead serious, Angel." He gave my ass a slap, making me yelp as my muscles tightened around the plug. "Keep that in while you work. Don't fucking remove it. Understood? Only I get to take it out." He kissed me again, harsh and demanding, claiming. It made me quake with need. I wasn't even going to make it to the office at this rate.
"Saint, you're not playing fair," I groaned, bending my body against his as my arms tightened around his neck. "I'm already so keyed up I could come just from walking down the stairs."
"Good," he growled. "You can come all you like, Angel. Just don't touch that plug. It's mine."
He kissed me again, then exited the bathroom with a smug-as-fuck grin on his face. Talk about the cat who got the cream.
"Shit," I whispered, clenching my butt and letting out a small moan at the foreign object I'd be taking with me to my meetings. Cass was trying to kill me, no question about it. This must be payback for shooting him.
"Dare!" Zed shouted from downstairs. "You ready to go? We're late!"
With a string of silent curses, I grabbed my shoes and purse and made my awkward-as-hell way downstairs to meet up with him.
"You okay?" he asked when I hurried into the garage. "You look a little flushed."
My smile was tight, and I could feel the heat still sitting in my face. "Yup, totally fine. Let's go."
He squinted at me a moment longer, then shrugged and climbed into the driver’s seat of his Ferrari. As I took my own seat, I needed to hold my breath to keep from moaning out loud. Then it seemed like every damn corner, every fucking traffic light was designed to torture me.
By the time we reached Copper Wolf offices, I was sweating. Fucking Cass was going to get a nut-punch for this stupid game. And yet I was too stubborn to just end it.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Zed asked as we rode the elevator up to our company floor. "You seem really... on edge." Then his brows rose, and he grinned. "Oh shit, Saint edged you, huh? What a prick." He hit the emergency stop button, and the elevator ground to a halt.
"What are you doing?" I asked, peering up at him as he backed me into the corner.
Zed just smiled, his hands caressing my waist. "Offering my assistance, Boss. Want me to lend a hand? You've got three guys to pick from; you don't have to let him leave you hanging."
With a short laugh, I tilted my head back and kissed him longingly. "You have no idea how bad I want to take you up on that," I whispered. "But we really are late, and this is a meeting we can't skip."
He gave a groan of frustration, then kissed me back. "Fine. Rain check until lunchtime?"
I nodded firmly as he backed off and restarted the elevator. "Hell yes," I agreed. "Count on it."
The morning’s meetings were to sort out the mess Chase had created with our approaching opening for Timber. He'd screwed with our liquor and gaming licenses and filed all kinds of irritating complaints that’d caused us to waste a crapload of time organizing additional inspections, pest control, environmental impact statements, and noise pollution reports. It was a headache and a half, and there weren't enough bureaucrats in the Cloudcroft council to simply make it all disappear.
Thankfully, that's what our meetings were set to handle. It was safe to say the distraction of Cass's toy in my ass the entire time was less than ideal for my concentration. Yet by the time we all walked out of the boardroom, we'd reached a satisfactory result.
Timber would open per our original schedule, and it would be done with the full support of the Cloudcroft mayor.
"So," Zed murmured as the mayor and her aids disappeared into the elevators, "about that lunch date."
I gave a soft laugh. "I'm actually starved."
Zed's gaze was pure filth. "Same."
"I've got you sorted, boss," Hannah offered, standing up from behind her desk and giving me a wide smile. "When your meeting ran so late, I called in an order with Zampati's down the road. They should be delivering your lunch in a couple of minutes. I got you the honey mustard chicken breast with wild rice, and, Zed, I ordered you the shrimp linguine. I hope that's okay?"
Zed looked irritated as hell, but my stomach was rumbling, so I gave Hannah a grateful smile. "That sounds perfect, thank you." I made my way back to my office with Zed following along. So was Hannah.
"Sir, I wanted to talk to you about those 7th Circle staff members that I was looking into?" She waited until I was seated—carefully—then sat down in one of my visitor chairs opposite.
Zed shot me a meaningful glare, silently begging me to get rid of Hannah so he could fuck me stupid before lunch arrived. But it was just entertaining me, so I ignored him. Besides, the butt plug was kind of comfortable now that I was used to it.
"Yes, I remember," I replied to Hannah. "What about them? I'm guessing they got poached by another venue."
Hannah frowned, her perfect black brows tight. "Not... that I can tell. One of them, yes, that was Jack Hugeman. He thought we had no shifts for him and needed to pay bills, so he took a job at Swinging Dick's." She cringed at that, and so did I. "I hope I didn't overstep, but I told him he would need a full health work-up if he wanted to return to Copper Wolf venues."
"Agreed." I nodded. "What about the other two?"
Hannah puffed out a breath. "They've been reported missing by their families. No one has seen or heard from them in weeks."
I stiffened, my lips pursed. "Remind me of their names?"
"Monica Carrie and Kelsey Gregson. They worked under the aliases Michela and Katherine. Both have been, er, sex workers for 7th Circle pretty much since you opened. Always punctual, popular with repeat clients, good employees." She gave a small shrug, the concern clear on her face. "There are open missing-persons cases for both of them."
Giving her a small nod of understanding, I drew a deep breath as I processed that information. First Maryanne got murdered, then these two girls went missing? It had to be Chase.
"Thanks for letting me know, Hannah. Keep me posted for any developments." I shifted my gaze to Zed, who looked like he'd just been hit with a stun gun. "Anything you want to ask, Zed?"
He gave a tight shake of his head, and Hannah politely excused herself, saying she'd bring our lunch in when it arrived.
After she closed the door softly, I narrowed my gaze at Zed. "What?"
He glanced at the door, then exhaled heavily as he came over to sit in the chair Hannah had just vacated. "Monica and Kelsey... they were both..." He waved his hand and winced. I didn't really need any more of an explanation as my mood soured.
"You were fucking them both. Right." My words were clipped and angry, and Zed groaned.
"Not recently, but yeah, in the past I spent some time with both of them. They're pretty girls and..." He scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration. "Chase is deliberately targeting women I’ve slept with."
"No shit," I muttered. I grabbed a pen and notebook out of my drawer and pushed it across the desk to him. "I suggest you make a list of every girl you've been with. They're all in danger."