Grounded (3 page)

With a smile he said, "No, I’m more like a thief. I make sure their security systems can’t be breached."

"You break into houses?" she asked wide-eyed.

"Not just houses, but museums, libraries, military bases, nuclear facilities, government installations, among others."

Patty was truly impressed and felt a skitter of excitement run up her spine. What a great
job it would be to work for him. Not to mention the perks! She could look at him all the time and get paid for it!

"That sounds very interesting," she said calmly, though her pulse was jumping beneath
her skin.

"Just interesting?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"
Ver
y
interesting," she replied.

"Do you want the job?"

"I do, but you don’t even know if I’m qualified, or anything else about me."

"Are you qualified, Patty?" He purred and she felt something
,
hi
m
, flow through her like hot oil.

"
Ye-yes," she stuttered. "I have my resume right here." She quickly handed him the page.

Dion accepted her resume and sat back in his chair, reading over her qualifications. Her
education was remarkable—a master’s in business from Columbia—but her work history hadn’t allowed her to really use her skills. That would change, he thought. She would be using all of her known skills and probably many more she had no idea she even had.

Putting the resume aside, he leaned forward, extending his hand, and she took it. The
electricity that shot up her arm this time made her jerk back. What Patty didn’t know

was that she wasn’t the only one feeling it.

"Congratulations on your new job," he told her, but even as he extended the offer, he started having second thoughts.

Dion was not happy. Not at all. He was a dedicated hedonist and this feeling inside of
him was not conducive to such pursuits. How on earth could this human female have such an effect on him? In all his eons on earth, he’d never experienced such a reaction.

Th
e
onl
y
reaction he wanted to have to a woman was a stiff cock, nothing else. There was absolutely no reason for him to be having an emotional response to Patty James. What was wrong with him?

He paced his office, shoved his hands deep into his pockets and paced some more. And
then the thought hit him
.
Mother
!
This had to be her doing; it was the only plausible answer. He could not possibly be falling in love. It was a ludicrous idea.

"Alright, Mother," he said aloud. "Knock off the shit. I know it’s you, so you can stop
now." He waited. No answer.
"
Mothe
r
! Show yourself!" He waited. Still no response.

Taking a deep breath, Dion tried to keep his temper under control. He tried one more
time. "Mother, please, I need to speak with you." After a few moments, he was sure she was not going to grant his request; he shook his head and muttered aloud, "If you won’t come to me, then I’ll come to you."

When he appeared in his own world, he pushed open the door to his brother’s private
offices without knocking. "Where is our mother?"

"Hello, brother, nice to see you. How are you?" Ira said mockingly and frowned, without
bothering to look up. "You could at least address me politely before starting in on demands."

Dion sighed. "Hello, Ira, how are you? Now, where the hell is our mother?"

"I have no idea. What do you want with her, anyway?"

"Just tell her to stay the hell out of my life. I don’t need her meddling."

"What do you think she’s done?"

"I don’
t
thin
k
she’s done anything.
I
kno
w
for a fact she’s done it, and I want her to butt out. I’m a grown-ass man, and unlike you, I don’t need my mommy butting into my life."

Ira tapped a pencil on his desk and gritted his teeth. What he would give for just one shot
at his little brother! Just one good old-fashioned right cross to the jaw! He took a deep breath, blew it out, and then said, "Fine, Dion. I’ll tell her that you came by."

"Tell her I said back the fuck off!" With that, Dion disappeared from his brother’s office.

"That went well," Ira said as he downed a glass of nectar. "I told you he’d know it was you."

Aurora waved one hand in dismissal. "No, he only thinks he knows it’s me. This was a
fishing expedition and he caught nothing."

"Mother, you’re meddling and he’s going to find out the truth, then we’ll both be in for it.
And frankly, I’m sick and tired of cleaning up after him."

"Don’t worry yourself," she said and patted him on the head, "by the time he does figure
it out, it’ll be too late. You and I will both have what we want." With that, she was gone, leaving Ira shaking his head.

~ * ~

Dion strolled out of his office. He wa
s
no
t
getting emotional over the human he’d just hired as his assistant. And why had he done such a stupid thing, anyway? Hired her!

What had he been thinking? His mother had to have meddled, because if she hadn’t, the
alternative was too terrible to even think about! As he walked toward the elevator, he heard a voice calling to him.

"Mr. Vine," Ms. Reed called. "Mr. Vine, please, you have appointments! Where are you
going?"

Dion ignored her and kept walking.

"Mr. Vine! Stop and answer me," she demanded.

Dion suddenly stopped and turned, "I’m sorry, Ms. Reed. Change my appointments till
next week. I’ll contact you later."

"You have six appointments today; shall I change them all?"

"Yes. And change all of them for the rest of the week," he said, then continued into the elevator and let the door slide shut in front of him.

~ * ~

Dion stepped into the casino with a grin on his face. Monte Carlo. It didn’t get any better than this! There was work to do, yes, but what did it matter if he did it or not? It’s not as if he needed money and the staff would be paid, regardless. What he did need, and very badly, was a vacation. He’d been working too hard, hadn’t played enough, there could be no other reason for his current condition. Finding a craps table, Dion threw down a hundred-dollar bill, not even noticing what number it landed on. Nor did he care. The important thing now was to get his mind right. To get his mind off Patty James. This shouldn’t be too difficult, he told himself. So why in the hell was it?

Moving on to th
e
Salon Prive
s
, gambling for high rollers only, he took a seat at one of the black jack tables and threw down five, hundred-dollar bills. Betting it all on his first hand, he split a pair of aces and won both hands. Letting the bet ride, he won the next hand with nineteen. Letting the two grand ride on the next hand, he split a pair of kings and broke even. After losing the next hand, the dealer raked all his money off the table, so Dion bet five grand on the next hand. A waitress took his drink order and brought him vodka on the rocks, for which he stuck a hundred-dollar bill in her cleavage.

No matter
how much he won—or lost—he could not get Patty out of his head. No matter how much he drank, he could not get Patty out of his head.

"
Dammit," he muttered. Raking his winnings off the table, he left five hundred dollars for the dealer and left the casino.

He walked t
o
Jimmy’z
disco, sat at the bar and ordered a drink. Maybe he could drink enough to get her off his mind. Or maybe he could dance her away.

He grabbed a woman as she walked by and spun her onto the dance floor. The music was
loud; the room pounded its rhythm out in the bodies of the patrons. Dion was an excellent dancer and he was happy with his choice of partners. Her legs were long; her dress was slinky, tight, low-cut, and riding high on her thighs. And her cheeks were sunken with that somebody-please-feed-me-a-cheeseburger look high-fashion models tended to have. Although she was over six feet tall in her heels, Dion discovered she weighed next to nothing when he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Where are you staying?" she shouted in his ear. Dion grinned, set her feet back on the
floor and pulled her along behind him. She pulled back and he stopped. "I have to tell my friend where I’m going," she said.

Nodding, he told her, "Port Palace." He waited impatiently while she went to a nearby
table and spoke to her girlfriends. All five pairs of eyes simultaneously looked him up and down, and five red mouths smiled their approval.

Back at Dion’s side, the woman took his hand and said, "By the way, I’m—"

"It doesn’t matter." With that, he practically dragged her outside to his car.

Th
e
Port Palace
,
located a
t
7, avenue du President J.F. Kenned
y
in Monaco, overlooked the sea in the middle of Port Hercule Harbor. The Palace was luxury personified. Of course, Dion would have nothing less than the best at his disposal at all times, and right now it didn’t matter where he was staying, he just wanted to fuck. Hard. Now.

He picked up his companion, carried her across the floor of his room, and deposited her
on the bed. He stripped out of his clothing, leaving them in a pile on the floor. Holding onto her wrists, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her. Hard and deep. With one hand he held her up, with the other, he grabbed her dress and ripped it from her body; she wore nothing underneath.

Placing his hands beneath her firm ass, he lifted her, impaling her on his hard dick. She
held onto his shoulders, her head thrown back, and her generous, firm tits thrust up before him like an offering to the gods. And since that’s exactly what he was, he sucked a nipple deep into his mouth, and heard her moan.

Backing up so he had a wall behind him for support, Dion plundered the woman. As she
reached her climax, her pussy tightened around his cock, and he walked to the bed, laid her on it with her ankles around his shoulders, and he fucked her hard. Holding her by the thighs, his fingers sank into the soft flesh and he pumped into her, pounding her ruthlessly until she came again. Then he came, as well.

Afterward, she showered and he called the concierge service. Her dress was in shreds, so
he bought her another and had it delivered to his room. When she’d dressed, he kissed her lightly, escorted her to the lobby and told his driver to take her wherever she wanted to go. Dion watched as the car pulled away from the curb, and then he went back to his room and showered and changed.

Looking at his watch he discovered it was still early, barely two in the morning. The night
was young and he had energy to spare. He could spend days here gambling and fucking, but he couldn’t get Patty out of his head, and worse, now he felt badly about having just had sex with whatever her name was. And the worst part? He didn’t know if he felt badly about using the woman the way he had, or if the uncomfortable feeling he now felt had more to do with Patty.

And what the hell was that? Why should he worry about what Patty would think if she
knew? What the hel
l
wa
s
that? Why should he care? Why should it even cross his mind?
This wasn’t right, not at all. One little human he’d only met briefly on two occasions and then had hired on their third meeting was now twisting his guts. He didn’t understand any of it.

After several thousand years of life and several thousand years of debauchery, in his own
world and in this one, he had never felt an attachment to any woman, goddess or human. That was why he had become convinced his mother had something to do with it.

There was nothing his mother would like more than to see him "settled down with a
house full of grandbabies," as she so often reminded him.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and thought about all the implications on the
ride to another club, and he still felt like his mother had her claws in it. Even though he didn’t have proof that his mother was meddling in his life, he knew her too well. She might be able to manipulate Ira, but he was a different man. A grown-ass man made his own way in life, his own decisions about life, and he did not bend to his mother’s underhanded, conniving ways of trying to set him up for marriage and children.

The fact that he couldn’t get Patty out of his mind didn’t bother him at all, he
told himself. There were plenty of women out there and if he had to fuck every one of them to erase her from his thoughts, he would.

~ * ~

Following Monaco, Dion spent three more days and nights drinking, gambling and fucking. He swept through Cannes, and from there he went to Venice, and then to the Orient. Ignoring calls from Ms. Reed, he continued on his little trip into the depths of debauchery with glee. He’d done much the same back in the old days. Greece, Italy,

Egypt…
the world had truly been a playground that Dion had treated as if it was his alone. Dining on the best food in the world, drinking the best liquor in the world, and fucking the prettiest women in the world, he’d been in his element. Much to his mother and brother’s dismay, of course. And he imagined that by now, they were pretty much disappointed again.

Day four found him in Spain, in the company of a gorgeous, dark-eyed diva by the name
of Sophia.

Taking his latest paramour by the hand, he pulled her to him, crushing her large, lush
breasts against his chest. Inhaling deeply, he lost himself in the fragrance of her hair, in her sweet scent that intoxicated him more than the wine he’d drunk earlier.

They were in a pool of water at the bottom of a waterfall. Dion had paid an exorb
itant amount of money to insure their absolute privacy, but he had more money than any one person could ever spend in three lifetimes and he had a strong feeling the lovely Sophia would be worth the added expense. As if to prove his point, Sophia dove beneath the water and took his cock into her mouth and he smiled, wondering how long she could hold her breath. However, he didn’t get to find out.

"Damn it, boy," his mother said, obviously furious. "What do you think you’re doing?"

Sitting in her private chamber, naked as the day he was born and just as wet, Dion ground his teeth together. If she hadn’t been his mother, he might have forgotten she was a woman, too, and decked her ass.