Mister Black: A Billionaire SEAL Story, Part 1 (In the Shadows) (12 page)

Hayes readjusts himself in his pants, then grabs up his fallen beer from the carpet. Popping it open, he shrugs as he wipes the foam on his jeans. “She got me hot, standing there all defiant-like.”

Shoving me through the doorway into our apartment, Walt murmurs, “Go get Amelia…and never come in here again. Ever.”

Amelia’s crying for her bottle. I stumble while trying to re-hook my bra before I get to her room.

“She’s fucking twelve-years-old, you perverted son of a bitch,” Walt yells.

“Watch it. Don’t forget who owns you,” Hayes snaps back, his tone menacing.

Grabbing up Amelia’s tense body, I carry her to my room and hold her close, crooning to comfort her. I quake all over as I stare out my window. My gaze locks on the fire escape and I breathe deeply, willing it to comfort me like it has in the past. When my heart continues to pound, my attention slides to the ladder. Hayes and Walt’s voices have lowered, but I can still hear them. The door must not have latched when I left.

“I’m not kidding, Hayes. Keep your goddamned hands to yourself.”

“Then you’d better find another way to be useful to me, because right now she’s your best asset.”

“I’ve got some ideas how to expand.”

“Ideas don’t mean shit, Walt. We can’t expand without money. I’ve got a lead on a cash transaction. Some punk needs to be taken out.”

“We don’t kill people,” Walt hisses.

Hayes snorts. “We do what needs to be done to survive, asshole. Now shut-up and watch the game.”

“Stop thinking about it,” Cass speaks right next to my ear, rescuing me from reliving the horrible memory on a continual loop.

I haven’t dreamed about that slimy bastard Hayes in a while. I guess my talk with Mina brought all those awful memories back. I lived in fear he would walk through that door and come after me while I slept. Every night after that, when I went to bed, I shoved a chair under the door handle, not trusting the puny lock would keep him out.

I sigh and blink in the darkness. “I’m not.”

“I can tell you are, because you’re still tense. Why don’t you tell me what happens this afternoon at four instead?”

I blink at the clock. Four a.m. I have to get up in a couple hours. “You heard that?”

She snorts. “I was drunk, not deaf.”

“Just coffee,” I say, relaxing as I think of Sebastian.

“Good,” she says, burying her nose against the back of my neck. “And I love you too, Talia.”

I
roll my shoulders in frustration as I wait in traffic heading back to the Hamptons from my aunt’s place in Manhattan. I’d gotten up super early, but now I’m stuck in this never-ending line of cars.

I glance at the clock and curl my fingers tight around the steering wheel. It’s almost two. At the snail’s pace this traffic’s flowing, I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the café by four.

Sitting here gives me too much time to think. To second-guess why I’m even showing up in the first place. But my mind wars with my heart. Now that I know I possibly had a connection to the drug dealers affiliated with the group who’d blackmailed Mina—even if it was eight years ago—I really don’t want Sebastian to know about my past. And that would include my real name. Why am I meeting him again?

Because he’s a good guy. You know it in your heart, Talia. It has nothing to do with the fact that you throb when you think of him, or that his name came out like a curse when you peed for the first time this morning, or that you wince whenever you move in this damned seat.

Thoughts of Sebastian’s hands roaming across my skin, their masterful play over my most intimate parts while he continued to seduce my mind, make my body heat all over again. I can’t get his intensity in everything he does out of my head. From his confidence in seduction to his knowing touch, he’s unforgettable, but it’s the memory of his mouth crashing into mine right after he’d tied me to his bed that continues to replay over and over in my mind. Even crouched over me, with his control briefly slipping, Sebastian’s kiss had been all-consuming, engaging all my senses.

Taken by surprise, a man like Sebastian doesn’t allow room for other thoughts to creep in. But at his best, when he’s in full control, he obliterates them completely. The moment he reigned in his own desire, he orchestrated every response, directing my body to play to his tune. At that point, he became the center of my everything.

In the evening’s shadows, his powerful charisma is irresistibly seductive, but in the light of day, I can’t help but wonder if his formidable magnetism will be more than I can handle. I grip the steering wheel and squirm in my seat, anticipating seeing him with equal parts excitement and trepidation.

A couple hours later, I park a few stores down from The Grinder, then skirt my way behind the storefronts. Marcus had told me that the porch wraps around two sides, since the café sits on the corner at the end of the shopping strip. I decide to approach from the other side and catch a look at Sebastian in the light of day. I’m sure he’s already waiting; he struck me as the type of guy who’d never be late.

The small white box in my hand crushes slightly when I spy Marcus’s blond head bent over his laptop as he lounges on a leather sofa inside the café, his back against the bank of windows lining this side of the porch. What the hell is he doing here? He’d told me he was going to Florida for Spring Break. Guess those plans fell through.

I press my back against the wood-planked wall and glance up at the roof above my head. I can’t believe this. Marcus will call my name out as soon as he sees me enter the cafe. And I can’t guarantee he won’t come outside while we’re here. As my heart rate starts to ramp, it hits me; he won’t recognize me with blonde hair, especially if I have my sunglasses on. Ugh…which are sitting in my car.

Before I sneak back to my car to get them, I can’t help but take a peek around the corner at Sebastian. My whole body clenches at the sight of him. He really is a brutally beautiful man. Hands tucked in his suit pockets, he’s standing in front of the porch rail, watching the road intently. If I thought Gavin was intimidating in a custom made suit, Sebastian puts him to shame. He could’ve just as easily played the role of the wolf last night. His charcoal suit fits his broad shoulders and trim waist perfectly, obviously tailored just for his well-built physique. My gaze is drawn to his hands tucked in his pockets. Sunlight reflects off the silver of an understated cufflink standing out against his crisp white shirt.

He looks relaxed, yet his gaze never stops moving, assessing. Even though he looks the part of a billionaire, there’s an underlying rawness about him that belies his cultured appearance, a don’t-fuck-with-me-and-expect-to-live primal vibe. I stay back and remain still, so I don’t accidently move into his peripheral vision; the man’s highly perceptive of his surroundings.

Suddenly I feel very underdressed in black slacks and a soft fitted emerald green sweater. The color would look so much better with my original color hair, but there’s nothing to be done about it now. I bite my lip when my gaze lands on his blood red tie.
Had he worn it for me?
The thought makes my insides tighten.

His phone rings, drawing me out of my sexy thoughts of tugging that silk tie off and sliding my hand across his starched shirt to feel the hard planes of his chest underneath.

“Quinn.” A pause, then his forehead creases. “Our orders were for Tuesday.” A deep voice rumbles from his phone, but it’s garbled from this distance away. Sebastian nods curtly. “Got it, sir. I’ll let Blake know. We’ll be there at fourteen hundred on Monday.”

My eyes widen as his deferential tone and comments sink in. So his last name is Quinn. Sebastian Quinn, but which Blake is he talking about? Oh shit, is he talking about Calder? If he is, that means Sebastian’s in the Navy too. Why didn’t he tell me?
Why the hell do you think, idiot? He wanted to get laid. But then why bother to meet me at all?
I have no clue. It doesn’t change the fact he’s leaving. Just like all the men in my life have. Not that any of them have been worth a damn. I don’t count my new step-uncle, George. I hardly know the man, since my aunt married him while I’ve been in college. But Sebastian is different. A sharp pain stabs at my chest.

His phone rings right after he clicks off with whomever he’d been speaking with. Chuckling, he puts the phone back to his ear. “Hey, talk about timing. I was just getting ready to call you—what? God!” He slides a hand through his close-cropped hair, his whole body tensing. “I’ll meet you at the hospital. Hey Cald—” His voice drops to a reassuring tone. “He’s going to be okay.”

Sebastian stands there for a second, staring at the road, the phone clenched in his hand, then he walks inside the café with brisk steps.

I peek through the window, watching him speak to the ponytailed teen who approaches him with a menu and a bright smile as she looks him up and down appreciatively. He shakes his head when she gestures to an empty table, then raises his hand, palm down, as if measuring someone’s height—mine. The girl shakes her head and gives him the pad and pen from her tiny apron pocket. He writes something down, then hands the paper to her.

I watch him drive away in a silver sports car, worry for whoever is on their way to the hospital tugging on my conscience, even as my heart aches. For us. For poor timing. And for my shitty past.

I know it happened like this for a reason. I don’t go inside and get his contact information. It’s best if I don’t know it.

Sitting in my car, I scrounge up a piece of paper from my glove compartment, then write out a note. The pen dies when I decide to add something to the end. Grumbling, I toss the black pen, then dig in my purse for another and finish the note with the only pen I can find, a green one. “Super classy, Talia,” I mutter. Once I finish the note, I tuck it inside the white box, then start my car and drive straight to the Blake estate.

I don’t know if Mina’s home. All I can do is try.

Thankfully her brothers aren’t around, but when the butler tries to rebuff me from seeing Mina, I tell him, “Please tell her Scarlett is here to see her.”

Mina squeals happily when she sees me at the door. Stepping out, she hugs me, her long dark hair flying in the wind. “I’m so happy to see you. Sebastian said you had to leave early last night.” She tugs on my arm. “Come in and let’s chat.”

“I can’t stay, Mina,” I say, glad I have my dark sunglasses on so she can’t see the tears misting my eyes. “I just brought this by for Sebastian. Will you please see that he gets it?”

“Of course.” She wraps her fingers around the box, then gives me a secret smile. “I’ll be watching the school paper.”

I smile and nod. “I don’t know how long it’ll take to get the story published, but I’ll make it happen as soon as I possibly can. And, Mina, please remember your promise to never tell anyone my name.”

Confusion filters in her expression. “Not even Sebastian?”

“Not even him.”

“So I should tell him this is from Scarlett?” she asks, lifting the box up.

When I nod, she tucks it under her arm. “Um, just so you know it might be a while before Sebastian gets this.”

I try to keep the disappointment from my expression. “I understand.”

“I don’t know if he’ll come back here before he leaves. He’s being deployed again soon for…” She pauses, then sighs sadly, shrugging. “Who knows how long? The last time his SEAL team was gone for nine months.”

“SEAL team?” I can’t help the hitch in my voice.

“Yeah, he and Calder are on the same one. He didn’t tell you he’s a SEAL?”

I slowly shake my head. Only someone as dominant in bed as Sebastian would downplay his “lethal killing machine” status to a simple “I’m in security” statement. “I had no idea.”

She nods, pride in her eyes. “But don’t worry. I’ll give this to him when he returns.” Tapping the box’s side, curiosity filters across her face. “What is it?”

I stare at the plain white box, then lift my gaze to hers. “A rainbow.”

Stay tuned for

Coming Summer 2014

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MISTER BLACK
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