Byron-4 (14 page)

Moving into the play room, she felt her body respond to seeing the bench again. She would never be able to look at one again without thinking of this one night. Shaking herself mentally as well as physically, she moved to the door marked exit. It wasn’t the door she had been led through last night so she assumed it was a way out.

The door spilled into a dark alley. There was one light at the end of it, just close enough to see that she wouldn’t fall over anything, but too many shadows to see if there was anyone around. Pulling her coat tighter around her, she moved to the mouth of the street. It was still dark and the wind whipping around the corner nearly had her going to try and flag down a cab, but she was more determined than ever to get out of Ohio.

By the time she got to Wal-Mart at five-thirty in the morning, she wasn’t only tired, but very achy as well. Her jeans rubbing against her butt reminded her with every step that he had used the flogger on her several times and very hard. Her arms hurt as well; being stretched out after so long made the muscles pull every time she reached for something. Her feet even hurt, which she couldn’t imagine why. She also had the ache of having had sex for the first time. The more she walked, the more she wanted to go and soak in a big tub of hot water. Unfortunately, the Y didn’t have a bathtub, only showers. By the time she had paid for her few purchases, she decided to take a cab. At this time of the morning and on a Sunday, she had no problem getting one.

On Sundays, Taylor tried to get as much done as possible. When she had lived in the apartment, she would make up her clothes, laying them out so that she need only grab a pile, shower, pull whatever was there on, and go. But she still needed to wash them. Hauling things to the Laundromat was her first order of business.

She was just putting the last load in the washer when the flipping phone rang.

Looking at the caller ID, the logo for the Grant building showed up. Devin, she thought, and nearly didn’t answer it. It was Sunday at seven in the morning. Did he not have better things to do than to bother her?

“You were supposed to call me last night. I waited for nearly six fucking hours and—” Taylor closed the phone. It was too early and she wasn’t having the best of mornings. When it rang less than a minute later, she answered.

“Damn it, Taylor, do you—”

She hung up again. She started crying now. Never a weepy person, it made her more upset than she wanted to admit that she had had enough of the men she knew treating her like some feelingless, mindless twit. This time when the phone rang, she let him get out an entire sentence first.

“If you hang up on me again, so help me Christ, I will find you and beat your ass.” The phone closed again. She was nearly sobbing now and turned her back to the woman in the Laundromat with her. She didn’t think he would call her again, but send out the police or the National Guard, so when the phone rang again; she seriously debated on chucking the thing in the washing machine.

“Hello, sweetheart. It’s Ronnie. Devin has given up. Well, for now anyway. He so hates when someone hangs up on him, but I told him he was being very rude to you.” Taylor couldn’t help it. She burst into sobbing tears. She didn’t know how long her crying jag went on, but when she blew her nose again and put the phone back to her ear, she wondered if Ronnie had hung up.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Taylor, honey, are you all right? Why don’t you let Devin come and get you and bring you here? I promise he’ll not say a single word to you; I’ll gag him if you want me to. I know you’ve been very stressed and all. Come over and visit me, please?

Devin is making me insane since I got home from the hospital and if I can’t get up then someone needs to help me plot to have him murdered. I’m betting that you have lots of ideas on how to do that too.”

“No, but thanks. I have stuff to do today. It’s just been a...I’ve been feeling sorry for myself and...well, it’s not entirely his fault that I’m crying.” Taylor wasn’t sure which him she was thinking about, but let it go for now.

“All the more reason for you to come here. I’m a great listener. I know that this thing with the Feds has you upset and I’m sure whatever happened between you and Jamie can’t be helping. Come here, please? Oh damn! The family dinner...that’s okay, you can go too. You know most of us now...”

“No offense, Ronnie, but no, and hell no. I have laundry do to and I have to get some emails answered. Tell your husband that I’ll be at this office tomorrow after work.

I really don’t think I can handle one more shitty thing happening to me today. I will even be civil to the Feds too. Please?”

“Yes. All right. I’ll make him understand. You have my cell phone number in your phone. If you just want to talk or bitch about the Grant men, then call. I’m sure any one of us Grant women would be more than glad to listen.” Taylor could hear someone talking in the background and wondered what Devin was thinking about Ronnie’s statement.

After hanging up, Taylor sat and watched her clothes swirl around the dryer. It wasn’t just the Feds or Jamie that had her weepy. Byron did as well. He had done just what he said he would, fuck her. She told him that it was just for one night and never again. What had she expected, roses, words of undying love, him to beg her to never leave him? No, she didn’t expect it, but something would have been nice.

~CHAPTER 14~

Byron hung up the phone. Again. Where the hell was she? He had called the number Taylor had given on her application twelve times since nine o’clock. It was just after one now.

When he had gone back to the bedroom at ten to wake her and get her on her way, he discovered that she was gone—all her clothes and her bag as well. When he went out the exit at the back of the playroom, he could see her tiny feet prints in the snow moving out to the street and that, for some reason, made him madder.

He had wanted her to leave, so why the hell was he so pissed off that she had? And why was he trying to call her? Did he want to fight with her over the phone? Because he knew without a doubt that was exactly what they would do if he were to find her. He hadn’t had to listen to her reasons for him to let her stay with him—he had every scenario worked out. What her pleas would be and his answers for her. He had hardened his heart against her tears and what he would say about those as well. Damn it, she was supposed to beg him to stay!

And what the hell was she thinking leaving in the middle of the night anyway? Did she want to get mugged? Or raped for that matter? Was she so stupid that she...no, not stupid, so stubborn that she would risk her life rather than let him take her home?

Damned woman, he was going to beat her ass when he found her. He was reaching out to pick up the phone on his desk again when it rang.

“You had better have a good fucking reason for leaving my bed.” When silence answered him, he leaned forward and closed his eyes when he saw who was on his caller ID.

“But you were so kind to me last night. Whatever reason would I have to leave a big, powerful, manly man like you? I was just so overwhelmed by all your masculinity,” the syrupy sweet voice answered.

“Fuck off, Spencer. I thought you were someone else. What do you want anyway?” Byron barked back.

“I should hope so! I was wondering if Meggie could ride with you today. She said she wants to spend some time with you. She misses you for some stupid reason.”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine. I have that car seat from before. Is it still the right size for her now that she’s six?”

“Should be, but I’ll bring the one from my car with me and you can keep it if it’s not. Hum, O’Malley wants to know if you’re bringing anyone with you. She said to tell you if you have a date, then Meggie would understand.”

“I do have a date, with Meggie. Tell your wife to stay out of it. Taylor and I are not a couple. When will you be here?”

“Around two-thirty. And I am not saying that to my wife. She’ll hurt me.” Laughing, Spencer hung up.

Did he want to be a couple with Taylor? Did he want to spend time with her, even outside the playroom back at the club? Yeah, he realized he did. She was a handful and she was an aggravation, but damn, she was fun.

He picked up the phone in his home office again and dialed the number. He couldn’t even leave a voice message for her. It just continued to ring and ring. He was going to have a talk with her about having a cell phone for emergencies.

Byron sat there and thought about having her last night. Christ, she was delicious.

Her body had responded to his in ways he had never connected with anyone before.

And her taste—sweet honey and cream had filled his mouth when he had tasted her.

Even her nipples responded in ways no other woman’s had. He wanted her again, not just for the playroom. He wanted to take her to his bed here in his home and make love to her, slow and easy.

Her virginity had been a surprise. Hell, if he was honest with himself, it had been a major turn on for him knowing that no other man had been where he had been, never been deep inside of her. He couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful and responsive as she was hadn’t had another man sample what he had—paradise on long silky legs.

He glanced at the clock.

Great, he had just over an hour to try and get his hormones back under control. He snorted when he thought of what Spencer or even Cait would say if Byron came downstairs with a hard-on. He knew that he would never hear the end of it.

~~~

Taylor went back to her room and put her things away. She got her stuff ready for work then sat down and finished her letter of resignation to the Freedoms. She was going to e-mail it to them first thing Monday morning. She was so exhausted. She had had enough and closed down her document program and crawled into the bed. Taylor barely got the covers up over her before she was sound asleep. It was just after seven o’clock in the evening.

It had turned bitterly cold overnight. Her coat, at best a jacket, kept very little of the wind from touching her skin beneath it while she walked to the office early the next morning. By the time she was stamping the snow off her feet, she was frozen. She went to the break area and microwaved a cup of water so that she could have a nice cup of hot tea before she got things started. The power flickered twice but then it was fine.

Taylor was sitting at her desk, having just got her computer out and sent her email to her bosses when the power danced again. She held her breath, hoping that it would go off for good and hoping that it wouldn’t. Before she could try to figure out why she was so conflicted, the power went off again. Damn and goody raced through her head.

Damn—another day short of pay, and goody—now I can go home and go back to bed.

She waited for an hour and decided she wasn’t turning herself into a popsicle for anyone and was going home. She just remembered that she had promised Devin she would be there after work. Damn, damn, and double damn. She pulled out the dreaded cell and called the office.

“Hello, this is Taylor Bennett. May I speak to Mr. Grant please?” She had hoped they would be closed down due to the power thing too, but the secretary answered on the third ring.

“Oh, lord, you’ll have to do better than that. There’s the doctor one here that’s a real doctor, the one that makes all sorts of money, and the one that’s the lawyer. You know a first name?”

“Devin. And I’m pretty sure they’re all doctors—real ones. Is he in by any chance?”

“Oh, that one. No, he’s off with the wife to a doctor’s appointment. Nothing serious, just a checkup after she had her baby. That other one, the money maker, I’d like to have me some of that—the man, not the money. He’s out with his wife too. I guess I’d like to have the money too. Girl can’t have too much of that, can she? Anyway, did you know she was an ex-con? And her being pretty and all.” Taylor couldn’t believe the indiscretion of this woman. She wanted to tell her so, but decided that it really wasn’t any of Taylor’s business. She did make a mental note to herself to tell the Grants—Devin and Ronnie—that she would appreciate it if Donna didn’t have access to her files, thank you very much.

“Yeah, okay. I have an appointment with them when I get off work and there is no power here, so do you think it would be all right if I came in now?”

“Oh sure, honey. You come on in. If they aren’t here, you and I can visit. I get really bored listening to these people whine about their crap all day long.” Taylor hung up and gathered up her stuff. Sheesh, she wondered, where did they find that one? That woman wouldn’t know how to keep a secret if her life depended on it, Taylor was sure.

“I have to run down to the corner deli for my lunch. Do you think you could maybe watch things for a minute or two? I’ll pick you up something if you want.” Taylor had been at the Grant office for just over two hours waiting for someone to call back, Donna said. And the woman hadn’t shut up once. Taylor’s head was swimming with pain and she was sure she was going to have permanent damage done to her eyes they had bugged so much. She now knew more about each Grant in the building, including spouses, than she bet any of them knew about each other.

“Yeah, go ahead. I’m not sure what they have, but if you could pick me up a veggie tray thing, that’ll be great, and a water.” Taylor wasn’t hungry; it was only a little after eleven, but the quicker Donna left, the quicker there would be peace and quiet in the room.

As soon as the elevator closed, the phone started ringing. Taylor wasn’t sure if she should answer it, but what if it was Devin? She would simply answer it and then tell whoever called that the Grants would be back if it wasn’t him.

At two, Taylor realized that the stupid woman had been gone for three hours.

Taylor didn’t even notice the time fly by; the phone hadn’t stopped ringing and people had been in and out the whole time. It had taken her three phone calls to realize that Donna was supposed to be answering the phone for both the law firm and the financial firm. Taylor wasn’t sure how the woman thought it was boring working here. Taylor was actually having a good time. Most of the time at the Freedom Fighters, she would answer three, maybe five calls a day. Here, she had taken around twenty messages and the phone hadn’t stopped.