The Billionaire's Mistress Complete Series: Alpha Billionaire Romance (37 page)

“
D
ropped
.” I studied my lawyer over the rim of my crystal glass. “Just like that.”

Adam lifted a shoulder. “I wouldn’t say just like that. It’s a sticky situation, but not for you.”

“What do you mean?” Putting the bourbon down, I leaned forward and studied the man across from me. When he didn’t answer right away, I felt the tension inside me starting to rise.

He’d called me, told me he had news, asked to meet. It'd been a full fucking week without answers, and now Adam was jerking me around with vague ones.

“Look, are you going to talk to me or–”

“Settle down, Jal.” Adam tossed back his bourbon and put his glass down with a distinct click before rising and pacing over to the far wall. “You’re clear on this. Clear as day, okay? But it seems that either Kendrick or his idiot associate tugged the wrong tail too many times. One of them is going to hang over this.”

“Ahhh…” I looked down at my hands, trying to figure out how I felt about that, how Allie might feel if her dad ended up in trouble.

“Chances are it will be Hammerstein,” Adam continued. “He went a little over the line, I think, in his job to frame you. Seems he had some dirt of his own he was trying to hide, and you were a good fall boy.”

My hand tightened on the glass. It could have been relief I felt. Or it could have been something else. I had no idea, and I didn’t want to think about it too long either. As pissed off as I was with Kendrick, I didn’t want to complicate things between Allie and me, not when we were just getting started.

The old bastard wasn’t worth it.

“You can always pursue civil action against both of them,” Adam said softly, as if he’d read my mind.

“No.” Shaking my head, I looked away. “Asshole should pay for what he tried to do, but maybe he already is.”

Adam didn’t respond for a moment, and when he did, I wasn’t surprised he’d connected Allie to whatever had happened on Kendrick’s side. “He’s asked for my…legal advice on a few issues. I told him I’d take it into consideration. He’s also asked me to pass a message onto you and to Allie. Apparently neither of you are taking calls from anybody with the last name Hedges.”

“The entire Hedges family can kiss my ass,” I said sourly.

“That seems a bit extreme.” Adam tipped his bourbon in my direction. “I’ve met the younger one – Mallory. She’s a nice kid. The black sheep of the family, from what I understand.”

I knew what he was talking about. My mother had been scandalized when Diamond had confided in her about the family’s shocking secret – Mallory was a lesbian. It was one thing to have some distant relationship involved in an
alternative lifestyle
, as Mom had told my father. Another thing for it to be your own child.

I'd always liked Mallory. I was glad when she moved to Boston and started her own life there. Adam was right. There was one decent member of the Hedges' family.

I didn't count Allie. She wouldn’t consider herself one of the Hedges. She was herself.

And I loved who she was.

* * *

A
llie looked beautiful
. She also looked nervous. Dressed in a soft green sheathe that accented her eyes and complimented her skin, she walked next to me as we wound our way through the maze of tables and a gauntlet of servers.

I knew not everybody was staring at us. Most of the people here weren’t that rude. But it sure as hell seemed that way. I definitely
felt
like I had a hundred sets of eyes on me, and if I was this uncomfortable I couldn’t even imagine how Allie was handling it.

Resting my hand on her spine, I felt the tension there and said, “Breathe. You’re better than any ten of these people combined.”

“Yeah?” She gave me a slow look. “Including you? Your folks?”

“Well, maybe five of me.” I winked at her. “There’s only one of my dad though. You’ll like him.”

Neither of us talked about my mom. We didn’t have to. I’d already explained that she was a friend of Diamond’s and that pretty much said everything that needed to be said.

The maître d had offered to escort us to my parents’ table – they were regulars, after all. But while I didn’t come with them as often, I knew where to find them so I’d declined the offer.

As I caught sight of my dad, I reminded Allie once more, “Breathe. I hear it’s good for you.”

“Ha, ha. Smart ass.” She took my hand. “I feel like I’m a guppy being thrown into the shark tank.”

“You’re not. You put up with Diamond and Paisley for years. If you can handle them, you can handle anybody here. You’re no guppy.” I raised our hands and kissed her knuckles. “If anything, you’re a stingray.”

“I'm a what?”

“You ever seen one of them move? Elegant and just as deadly as a shark. But a lot prettier.”

She laughed. “Thanks. And FYI, I’d rather be dealing with Paisley and Diamond. Haven’t you heard that saying about the evil you know?” Taking a deep breath, she smiled at me then. “Let’s do this.”

I squeezed her hand as we came to a stop by my parents' table.

My dad was already on his feet, his light blue eyes sparkling. Mom was sitting there, drinking a mimosa, and judging by the glassy, bright look in her emerald-colored eyes, it wasn’t her first. Probably not even her third or fourth.

Great.

“Dad. This is Allie Dodds.”

Allie held out her hand to Harold Lindstrom, Sr.

He studied it for a moment.

Now we really
were
the center of attention.

My father was laid-back, and for the most part, he was content to let my mother set the course. But Harold Lindstrom, Sr. came from old money. While I'd been the one in the family to increase our wealth, he hadn't done anything to hurt the family name either. He was still the one people looked to as an example.

From the corner of my eye, I saw my mother sit up a little straighter, and I started to feel a little sick. I'd thought for sure that this was something he'd stand up to her about. Was he really going to–?

Dad caught Allie up in a tight hug.

“Hello, Allie.” He squeezed her once and then let go. “My boy has told me so much about you…including how you stepped up to deal with that ugly mess a few days back. That prick – excuse my language – takes a lot to stand up to him. I understand you’ve known him since you were young.”

“I…yes, sir.” She nodded, giving me a bemused glance.

I gave my head a minute shake. I hadn’t told him about her connection to Kendrick. That wasn’t my place. If she chose to, she could. Otherwise, it would remain her story. As far as I was concerned, Tyson McCormack was her father.

“Come. Sit.” He pulled out the chair where I’d normally sit, putting her right next to him. I took the only other open seat, sitting across from her. “Are you hungry, Allie? We held off ordering because we knew you were on your way.”

My mother didn't even look at Allie when she spoke, “Yes, and you know your father doesn’t do well if he doesn’t eat by a certain time. It was rude of you to ask that we wait so long, Jal. Really.”

Allie’s cheeks flushed, and my temper flared.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t realize that extra half hour was going to make Dad keel over.” I gave my old man an appraising look. “You hanging in there okay or should we call for paramedics?”

One corner of his mouth twitched. “I think I’ll do alright, boy.” He studied my mother a moment and then leaned back as a white-coated server appeared to refill coffee and offer some to Allie and me. We both accepted, and Allie asked for cream and sugar.

“I detoxed from sugar over a year ago,” Mom said loftily. “I’ve never felt better. It helps a woman remain youthful as well.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Allie liberally spooned two helpings of sugar into her coffee – twice as much as normal.

Damn. I already knew it wasn't a good idea to get on her bad side, but this was something else.

“I personally prefer things in life a little sweet, but to each their own.” She gave my mom a charming smile.

Dad hid a smile behind his cup. I didn’t bother hiding mine.

While my dad peppered Allie with questions, my mom tried to find some way to get under Allie's skin. Each time Mom found a way to take a potshot, I felt my temper growing thinner. Allie handled it all with aplomb.

Right up until my mother said, “I hear your mother used to scrub floors for the Hedges. Among other things. Is that true?”

Allie set her coffee cup down. I was already glaring at my mother. But before either of us could respond, my father cleared his throat.

“Ginny, that’s enough.”

My mother whipped her head around and stared at him.

I did, too.
Ginny
? I’d never heard
anybody
called my mom
Ginny
. She always insisted on using her full name. Ginnifer. And made sure it was spelled correctly, even if it wasn't being written down.

Then I realized what else he said.

Dad sighed and reached for one of the flaky croissants that had been brought out a few moments earlier. “I’m tired of this game you’re playing. I was tired of it a long time ago, but you rarely stooped so low, and never in public. You rarely went against friends or those who mattered to our son, so I stayed quiet. But you’re going to stop. This is ridiculous.”

He looked at Allie and smiled even as I sat there with my mouth hanging open.

“You’re more than welcome in our family, Allie. Don’t worry, Ginny will come around. She loves her son just as much as I do, and in the end, what she wants is for him to be happy.” Then he looked at my mother. “And if she’d actually stop sulking and worrying about her petty friends so she could take a good long look at our boy, she’d realize that he
is
happy.”

I felt myself going red. Allie’s cheeks were a soft, dusky pink, and she busied herself with her napkin as my mother’s complexion went from flushed and angry to pale.

Finally, she looked over at me.

After a moment, she took a deep breath. “I…I believe I need to step away for a moment. If you’ll excuse me?”

Dad watched her go, and a moment later, he nodded at us and then stepped away as well.

* * *

D
ad returned before she did
.

She stayed gone almost ten more minutes.

The woman who came to our table
looked
like my mother. She talked like her. Hell, she even sounded like her. But the hard sheen I was so used to seemed to have fractured and fallen away.

She talked to me like she hadn’t in years. And she talked to Allie too. Their interactions were still stilted, but they spoke nonetheless.

At the end of brunch, I gave my dad a hug, and said softly, just for him to hear, “Thank you.”

He chuckled. “Diplomacy comes with the territory, son. You best learn it while you’re young.” He glanced at Allie, then looked back at me. “And let me give you a piece of advice. Don't let that one go.”

I followed his gaze. “Don't worry, Dad. I don't intend to.”

“
O
pen
…”

His voice was like raw silk, rubbing all over my body and my senses too.

I would have moaned, maybe even begged, but my mouth was suddenly full.

I would have reached for him, maybe even clung to him, but my hands were restrained.

I would have whimpered and wiggled and squirmed, done anything to ease the burning ache inside me as Jal fisted his hands in my hair and held my head steady, doing exactly what he’d promised on the drive back to his apartment.

I love your mouth, you know that? And I’ve had this fantasy…I think it’s time I make good on it.

I hadn’t realized he was in the mood to play, or I would've been quicker on the upkeep because the rewards were amazing.

He’d ended up with his fingers between my thighs, our bodies angled so the driver couldn’t see, but just knowing that someone else was there...it turned me on more than I'd realized possible.

If you can guess the fantasy before we get home, I’ll make you come.

It had taken me almost too long because his fingers were really distracting – and clever.

But I’d figured it out. Enough, at least, to have my reward.

And now, I was restrained in a way that I’d never been before, and I felt more open and vulnerable than I’d ever felt, more exposed, more…
erotic
.

I shivered, and the thin chains that connected the nipple clamps to my bound wrists tugged, a subtle warning of how little I could move.

He let go of my hair and reached one hand down, tugging on the chain that connect my left nipple to the padded cuff around my left wrist. More chains connected the nipple clamps to the collar around my neck.

A spreader bar went between my ankles, and Jal had taken great pleasure in telling me that he could even get chains that connected these nipple clamps to that bar.
But you’re not ready yet. I don’t want to hurt you and if you move too much…

He tugged the chain again, and the clamp gave my nipple another delicious bite.

I moaned around the thick shaft in my mouth, a hot dart of heat twisting through my pussy, arching my spine.

He did it again. And again.

Each tug made that heat blaze hotter, brighter until I was moaning endlessly, barely able to breathe as he continued to slide his cock in and out of my mouth.

“Swallow me, baby,” he said. Another tug and bolt of pain. “Yeah…that’s it. Take more…aw, hell…”

I shivered when he pulled out, coughing and gasping for air. I watched as he fisted his cock like he was going to come all over me. The idea had me licking my lips.

He shoved my hair back from my damp face and asked what I was thinking.

I told him.

He kissed me in the next breath, going to his knees front of me, and kissing me so roughly, it stole the very air out of me. “You want me to come all over you?”

“I want to see you come,” I said. “I don’t care if you do it on me or not.”

“Not good enough.” He stood up and came around me, kneeling behind me.

I cried out in frustration as he urged me forward, wrapping his arm around my waist so I didn’t fall. I couldn’t brace myself, couldn’t even fight his hands, thanks to the restraints. “Bastard.”

He spanked me, and I yelped in shocked surprise.

“If you wanted to see me come, you should have told me so.” He nipped at my ear. “But the first time we're not using condoms, I'm coming inside you.”

I groaned, then cried out as he drove into me, hard and fast. I was so ready, I was coming even before he finished filling me. He caught one of the chains and began to tug. Each time, it rippled through me, drawing the climax out longer and longer.

“That’s it…you squeeze me, just like that…”

I shuddered and twisted around him, trying to get closer, although how much closer could I get? It was pain and pleasure all wrapped together, overwhelming me until it was too much. I cried out when he withdrew only to surge forward again, and again.

He kept up that slow, steady pace throughout my entire climax, kept on tugging on the nipple clamp chains so I hovered right there on the razor’s edge, one orgasm gone, another promising – but he withheld it so easily.

When he stopped moving, I growled my frustration.

“Look up, Allie.”

It was a command, not a request, so I did it.

And then I saw the mirror, saw us in the mirror.

“I’ve never had a woman without a condom before, Allie. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it feels inside you, with nothing between us.”

Whimpering, I twisted against him, only to be brought up short by the chains. “Move, please. I need to come again.”

He kissed my shoulder. “Beg me.”

“Please! Dammit, Jal! Just please…” No other words would come. Then I felt his thumb at my ass, and a shudder ran through me.

“Tell me what you want, baby.”

I closed my eyes.

“Open.”

I obeyed.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I want you to fuck me,” I said. “I want you to come inside me.”

“And what are you willing to do for me?”

“Anything,” I whimpered. I was stuffed so full of him and trying not to rock back against him with the chains tugging and teasing...

“Say it.”

“My ass.” My eyelids fluttered as the tip of his thumb breached me.

“What do you want?”

“Fingers,” I said. “Cock. Something. Anything.”

I seemed unable to form coherent sentences. He reached around and pushed two fingers into my mouth.

“Suck.”

I did, and his fingers were at my anus again. He pulled back, and as he thrust back into me, he shoved his fingers into my ass.

That knocked a scream out of me.

He did it again…again…again…

Mindless of the nipple clamps and chains, I twisted around him and bore down, trying to take more, more,
more
.

Abruptly, he pulled me up. He’d freed the chains somehow and now had me plastered against his chest, each hand full of a breast, squeezing them as he drove up into me, each stroke enough to lift me off my knees.

I cried out his name as the orgasm slammed into us both. I felt him empty inside me even as my climax made the world go white around me.

It was then that I felt it. The connection, the satisfaction, that I'd never quite been able to manage in other encounters, not even with Tao. There'd always been a little something missing before, but now, I'd found it.

It was him.

* * *

W
ater bubbled
and churned around us.

On our left, there was a window that let us see the sprawling panorama that was Philadelphia. A few lights dotted the dark ribbon of a river, marking barges, and maybe a few intrepid boaters who'd been waiting for a true thaw to get back on the water.

“It’s a beautiful view,” I said, wishing I had the energy to do more than loll against Jal. The day's events, however, had taken it all out of me. It'd gone well, but it'd still been draining.

“Yes, it is.”

Something about his voice had me lifting my head, and I caught sight of him in the mirrored wall across from us. The first time I’d seen it, I called him a pervert. He’d laughed.

Now my heart ached, because I could see Jal watching me, and the expression on his face made crazy, weird things dance inside me.

“I love you.”

I blinked, thinking I had to have misheard him, that my brain had to be playing tricks on me.

When I didn’t respond, Jal said it again, his eyes meeting mine. The emotion shining in their depths told me that it wasn't my imagination.

Tears burned my eyes as I turned around in his arms, ignoring the water splashing over the sides of the tub. Curling my arms around his neck, I pressed my face against his throat. “Jal...” My voice cracked.

“It’s not supposed to make you cry when a guy says that.” His tone was half-teasing, but I could hear the uncertainty hovering beneath the surface.

“I love you too.”

I felt his body relax as I said the words. As I wrapped myself tighter around him, I felt some last little knot of tension give inside me. I wasn't foolish enough to believe that things would be perfect from here on out, but I did know that we'd always work it out. There wasn't anything the two of us couldn't face if we were together.