Torn (Lords of the City #1) (10 page)

Holding a hand up, she continued her conversation with the hotel. “Yes, your most expensive suite. I understand many are sold out, just give her what’s available. And make sure there’s a bottle of champagne waiting.”

Giving in to the inevitable, I whispered for her to do the same for Peter, which she did.

“Yes, that’s all,” she said gleefully into the phone. “That’s great. Thanks. Bye bye.”

“I can’t believe you did that!” I cried. “You are so scandalous. Noah — Mr. Stafford — is going to be so mad.”

“He probably won’t even notice. Don’t worry about it. You and Peter go have fun. It’s the least you can do for putting up with him.” Frowning, she suddenly went quiet.

“Julia, what is it?” I asked, gripping her hands.

“Nothing,” she said, a bright smile plastered on her face, but she remained quiet for the rest of the day.

***

Sitting in my daisy-covered hatchback, I flicked the elephant trinket tied to my rearview mirror.
An elephant never forgets.
I was like that. Unable to forget about Thailand or Corey. When the elephant stopped swinging, I examined a map of the parks around Chicago. The environment called to me. I needed green, and I needed water. Locating a park on the map that boasted trees and an antique fountain, I went.

Under a pink sky, the last of the day illuminated the park. Children had gone home to their dinners. Joggers had already finished their run. A few couples meandered the tree-lined paths with me, but the park was mostly abandoned. I followed the signs to the fountain, but when I reached it, my spirits sunk with disappointment.

The fountain had a simple elegance, reminding me of a stonework wedding cake, but it was dried-out and covered in moss. Shaking away the setback, I pulled a penny from my pocket. Wishes didn’t need water, just hope. I threw the penny in and listened to it clatter against the stone.

“You know there’s no water in the fountain,” Noah said, walking towards me in the fading sun. It was strange to see him outside in the daylight. He was like a vampire, remaining indoors during the day, only emerging at night. The daylight befitted him. It brought out a lightness in him that I wasn’t sure even he knew he possessed.

“I hate that you can track me so easily,” I complained.

“It’s not midnight.”

“I’m aware, but that doesn’t mean my privacy shouldn’t be respected when I’m not in the office.”

“I’m watching out for you,” he maintained. “You’ll realize it, one day. What did you wish for?”

“That you wouldn’t track me,” I joked.

He moved beside me so that we were shoulder to shoulder facing the fountain, like lovers planning their future. My heart racing, I pushed away the wish for him to wrap his arm around me, to take comfort in his strength.

“What else?” he asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Try me.”

I looked at him. “For your brother to return,” I said honestly.

“I see,” he said somberly. “Will you allow me to take you somewhere?”

“It’s before midnight. Can I say no?”

“You’re always allowed to say no. But this has nothing to do with work. It’s personal, and it requires a small drive out of the city. Will you come?”

Trying to read his eyes, I gave up and agreed. “I’ll come.” I was intrigued. Besides Julia and Peter, I didn’t know many people. I couldn’t give in to the attraction between Noah and me, but there was the potential for us to be friends. And we had Corey in common. That was important.

Leaving the park, I headed towards my hatchback, foolishly expecting Noah to follow, but he gently guided me towards the company car. “I know you’re adventurous, but I’m not. There’s no way in hell I’m getting into that rust bucket, not when we have a chauffeur.”

We drove, trading the city and its parks for open fields filled with herds of cattle that roamed as free as the elephants in the jungle. Passing through a suburban neighborhood with one street but lots of activity, we turned up a hillside and parked along a tall iron fence. Behind the fence was a country manor that stood four stories high. With its rose-colored stone, it would have been magnificent, but it was in disrepair. Weeds were overgrown throughout the lawn, and ivy had crept up the side of the old stone, prying some shutters from their windows. It was a beautiful sadness.

“Stafford Estate,” Noah revealed. “Our childhood home.”

“What happened to it?” I asked.

“My parents moved to New York, and Corey’s always traveling. I prefer the city, so no one comes here.”

I wanted to get out and explore, but Noah locked the doors. “I’m not here to give you a tour,” he said. “This is a lesson. The state of the place shows you how often Corey visits. He has this entire manor that he can use for himself, and he doesn’t.”

“And you don’t like that,” I observed, reading his tone.

“Of course I don’t.” He spoke as if it were obvious. “Our parents weren’t exactly hands-on, and the nanny who raised us died long ago. Corey is the only family I have that matters.”

“Then why are you so touchy feely with me? Why do you risk dividing your relationship further?”

He leaned closer. “Because I know with absolute certainty that he’s not coming back. He has never come back. He sent you to me for a reason, you know.”

My heart squeezed. I was so stupid. “Oh.”

Noah lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes again. “Hope is foolish. It can rot the soul. Whatever promises he made to you, he won’t keep them. I don’t say this for my sake. I say it for yours. You deserve more than what my brother can offer you.”

“Like what you can offer me?”

“No, I can’t give you what you deserve either.” His speech was impassive, but his eyes sparkled with profound desire, captivating me, telling me everything he wanted to do to me. “I can’t give you a long-term commitment, but I can drown you in pleasure. If you agree to a year with me, a year where we remain loyal to each other, I will awaken your body in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.”

My insides pulsing wildly, my core betrayed my heart. I was tempted. The air in Chicago was different from anywhere else. Every time I breathed it in, I became a part of its heat, a secret fire that smoldered beneath its gray skies and blazed in the black of the night. Imagining the heat caressing my body, I was speechless.

Noah took advantage of this. Lightly brushing his thumb across my cheek, he held my gaze, ensuring I listened carefully to everything he had to say. The expensive cologne he wore invigorated my senses, made me want to press my body against his until I wore it too.

“We’re going to make another stop,” he told me. “Don’t be frightened. No one will hurt you. I won’t hurt you. Just open your mind and if you feel like it, let your body follow.”

B
ack in the city, Noah escorted me to the VIP section of a club that was nothing short of an underground extravaganza. On a rounded dance floor, people danced beneath flashing lights, their bodies throbbing with the beat of the music, a flush in their skin from their exertion. There was a freedom in the way they moved, as if every thigh, every hip on the dance floor was fair game, their dance a sweet corruption. Contortionists painted like neon dragons stood on platforms around the floor and spewed fire as they twisted in erotic shapes that made my bones hurt and caused the muscles deep within me to pulse.

“Watch carefully,” Noah said from our table on a balcony above the floor. “Tell me what you see.”

“Nothing unusual,” I replied, acutely aware of his breath on my neck. “People are randomly making out. There’s a girl in a pink wig who only just came in, and she’s already got her tongue down a guy’s throat, but that happens in every club.” I squinted, trying to find them. “Actually, they’re gone.”

“Where do you think they went?” he asked, his lips close to my flesh, my pulse.

I didn’t care about anyone else in the club, only Noah and what he could do to me. “Home?” I guessed hoarsely, my throat dry with longing.

“No,” he said. “Not home. They’re still here. Look again.”

I noticed it then. In a crescent around the dance floor were thick purple curtains. “They went behind the curtains. Where do they lead?”

“To more girls in pink wigs,” Noah told me, setting his hand just above the back of my dress, as if he were about to unzip it. “To more throats.” Like a feather, his touch slid around my neck, then fell down to my shoulder, left bare by my sleeveless dress. “To more everything.”

It hit me. “This is a sex club!”

“Only if you want it to be,” he said, his voice as deep and penetrating as a canyon, inviting me into the night.

I bit my lip, fighting between the will of my body and the will of my mind. “I don’t think I want to be here,” I said, wanting to step away but rooted to the spot.

“This is Chicago. This is the city,” Noah coaxed. “Let me show you the joys hidden within those curtains. We can leave whenever you want.”

Feeding off of his intensity, allowing it to control me, I agreed, and he led me to a gold curtain upstairs near our table. Behind it were more curtains — a hall full of tapestries hanging on the walls, like an Arabian bazaar. Each was unique, varied in color and embroidery.

“Pick one,” Noah prompted, his hand on my upper back, fingering the strands of hair at the nape of my neck. “Which one speaks to you the most?”

“This one,” I said, patting an orange tapestry with lotus flowers imprinted onto it. The fabric was smooth, as if it were woven with pure silk and not the wool it was actually comprised of.

Noah lifted it up, revealing a door, in front of which he scanned a card from his pocket. “It’s still fresh, untouched,” he informed me.

The door opened to a whitewashed room showered in real lotus blossoms, their pink petals folded upright like spiky floral carousals on a bleached sea. There was no furniture, just the flowers and us. We could be anywhere. Thinking back to the comics I’d read growing up, I imagined I was in a whole new reality, a parallel universe, one in which I’d never met Corey in Thailand, that I’d only ever known Noah and was free to give myself to him without remorse.

“Good choice,” he praised feverishly, standing behind me, tracing his hands down my arms and my hips, around my ass, which he cupped and squeezed, rousing all areas around it to pulse with the same fervor as the music outside.

Drunk by his touch, I shifted my weight, making my curves more accessible to him, enjoying the way my ass pressed into his manhood, which was hard and erect through the slacks of his suit. He kissed my shoulders as he ran his hand across my jaw then gripped my neck, clutching me, claiming me.

“You must do as I say,” he said between kisses. “This won’t work unless you do as I say.”

Unable to answer, I writhed with longing, responsive to his hand stroking my throat like a light breeze, sending vibrations of joy down to my core.

“What will you do?” he questioned smoothly, like caramel, his lips joining his hand, kissing the side of my throat.

“As you say.” My voice was gravel in comparison, heavy with the ache of my need.

“Good. Now we can begin.”

Moving languidly, he began to unzip my dress, but I tensed, suddenly very much aware of what was about to happen. “Wait,” I pleaded, regaining control of my speech, conflicted once more. “I’m not sure I can do this.”

To assure me I could, he removed his suit jacket and his tie, leaving only his dress shirt, which showed off the resilience of his arms, and his slacks, which did little to cover the hardness of his desire. “Now you.”

Weakened by the chisel of his body, I let my dress fall to the floor and kicked it away with my shoes, leaving me in only my lace panties and bra as I stood amongst the lotus blossoms.

“Lie down,” he commanded, and I obeyed, stretching out on the floor, which was surprisingly warm and shook with the beat of the music that penetrated the club, sending small vibrations across my spine.

Kneeling beside me, Noah picked up a blossom and used it to become acquainted with my body. With the softest touch, he stroked it across the bulge of my breasts, over my navel, and down my thighs to my feet, charging every cell it glided over. The contrast between the vibrations in the floor and the gentleness of the blossom caused me to soar. With every trace of the petals on my skin, my breath quickened, and my insides turned sodden, anticipating what would come when Noah exchanged the blossom with his own touch, his lips, his cock. Imagining it, I squirmed, budding.

“Remain still or I’ll make you,” he demanded, licking his lips, enflaming my desire for him.

Dropping the blossom, he picked up my foot and massaged it, his hands blissfully forceful. He moved up my calf, caressing my skin, and onto my thighs, inching closer to the one place I wanted him to touch the most.

“Show me how you beg.”

Beg?

At first, I didn’t understand, and then I did. My head warred with my body even as I moved to my knees, facing him. Holding my wrists out, I looked up at him, my eyes sealed to his, completely at his mercy. Mimicking the gentleness of the blossom, he moved the chestnut waves of my hair off my shoulder and kissed my neck, sending a shiver through my veins. I preferred his lips. They were warm and amorous, capable of bringing me unlimited pleasure.

His kisses reached my chest. As he nuzzled the flesh just above my collarbone, he reached under my bra and cupped my breasts, his hand claiming me. I moaned, the heat in my body rising as we pressed together, like liquid metal longing to meld.

Needing more of him, I unbuttoned his shirt, half-blind by my lust, and ran my hands along the muscles of his chest.

There are no tattoos.

Pushing the thought away, I left his shirt alone and wrapped my hands around his neck. The kisses on my throat turned fervid, bruising my skin while electrifying my body. He reached behind my back and unhooked my bra, freeing my nipples for him to play with.

But he has no tattoos.

“I can’t,” I gasped, pushing him away.

“You can,” he urged feverishly, but I held a hand out, creating a barrier between us.