“So what wisdom do you need me to impart to you?” Dean asked.
I cocked my head and gave him a stern look. “Is this all there is?”
“You mean the scotch or life?” Dean screeched through a red light and up a steep hill to a canyon road.
“Both.”
“Well, we can always get another bottle,” Dean said.
A giggle bubbled up through the warm cloud of the liquor. My head was warm and fuzzy. I liked it.
“Then drive faster,” I said.
“Aye aye, captain,” Dean said. He gestured towards the glove box. “Just light up that joint and help me smoke it.”
I found it easily enough, took a long drag for myself, and then held the joint to Dean's lips so he could smoke while driving. Soon, the inside of the Lamborghini was as hazy as my thoughts. I leaned back in the leather seat and let him navigate the curves. His hot hand ventured from the gear shaft to my inner thigh as often as he could, and I dropped my legs open just to tease him, earning small groans and annoyed sounds.
“How about we get out of these hills and onto the highway,” he suggested.
“I'm just along for the ride,” I said flippantly.
The scotch had warmed me, the marijuana drifted away my worries, and the car took me away from where I didn't want to be. I didn't care where we went or what Dean wanted. I was gone, if only for a while, and that was all that mattered.
We dropped back onto the Pacific Coast Highway, and when I held the joint to Dean's lips, he kissed my palm before taking a long drag. He wasn't my usual type and I wasn't even sure I found him attractive. But it was as good a way as any to help me forget. I wriggled deeper into the smooth leather seat and let Dean's hand trace up my inner thigh again.
We were on a smooth stretch of uninterrupted highway, so this time he didn't have to stop. His hand squeezed and then drifted higher, under the hem of my dress. I moaned as he traced a finger over the thin cotton of my panties. I wasn't wet yet, but if he kept that up, I would be soon.
“You got somewhere you want to get back to?” Dean asked. His finger rubbed around in slow circles as he drove back towards where he'd picked me up.
“No. Take me with you.” The heat was building in my body, almost blocking out the rest of my tired thoughts.
“You got it.” He pulled his hand from between my legs as he slammed the car into high gear and flew through the city.
We arrived at his building a few minutes later. As the elevator doors closed, he took a long drag of the joint and yanked me into his arms, exhaling between my lips during a long, hard kiss. His lips were thin, his mouth tasting of pot and something with garlic. Not exactly the best kiss in the world, but it kept me from thinking, and that was the most important thing.
When the elevator doors opened, I had to admit that I was impressed. Dean's condo glittered with black marble and stainless steel. Floor to ceiling windows made it feel like there was nothing between us and a dizzy view of LA.
Dean popped the cork from a bottle of champagne and let it splash into two crystal flutes. He wrapped one arm around my waist as he handed me the fizzing drink and I pressed myself against him. The friction ignited the heat in my body again, but not enough. I needed to forget and this wasn't going to do it.
I kissed him, the champagne still sparkling in my mouth, and he groaned with pleasure. Both hands were on my waist, rubbing up and down my back, dragging my dress up over the curve of my ass. I felt the cold counter against my skin as he pressed harder into the kiss, one hand sweeping between my thighs.
“Think you can take me some place good?” I asked.
His answer was a deep, guttural growl. He lifted me up onto the black marble countertop, and then dropped his head down to kiss my bare thighs. I leaned back on my elbows and let him push my dress up higher.
“Let's get high, baby.”
He fumbled open a nearby drawer and took out a small vial of powder. He held it toward me, but I shook my head. Pot, some prescription meds, maybe a little E from time to time, all those were fine, but I stayed away from the hard stuff.
Before I could sit up, he shook it out onto my thigh and used a business card to scrape it into a line. The snorting inhale tickled me and my laugh ended in a gasp as he buried his head between my legs. His hot breath and the wet rub of his tongue against my panties finally blasted away all rational thought.
This...this was what I'd wanted. I closed my eyes and let myself go.
A bang had me jerking upright, eyes flying open. As I watched, Haze burst into the room.
“What the hell...”
“Get off her right now,” Haze said, eyes dark and dangerous.
“You're dating a fucking action figure?” Dean asked as he sprang back from my open legs. He held up his hands as he back away from me.
I sat up, yanking my dress down over my thighs. My temper was burning away some of the haze and that just made me angrier. “You're breaking and entering, Haze. You want to get arrested?”
“Did this man grab you? Did he take you?” Haze asked as he took a step toward Dean. I was pretty sure the other man was going to piss his pants.
“What are you talking about?”
“Did he kidnap you?” Haze asked.
“Whoa, no, none of that,” Dean said, his tone almost frantic. “She's a friend. I mean, I know her grandfather. Shit, does that make it worse? Do you work for Devlin?”
“Shut up, Dean.” I jumped off the counter, cold and angry as I turned on Haze. “Can't I have one moment away from all of that? Can't I have one night where I'm not trapped by him and you?”
“Who is this guy?” Haze gave Dean a look of pure disgust. “Why are you here with him?”
I sighed. “He's some guy who worked with my grandfather, like he said. And we were having a little fun. I like to party. I like to have fun. Remember?” My voice was too loud, but I couldn't stop. “I can see you judging me. Is that why Grandfather hired you, so you could walk around embarrassing me and judging me?”
Haze's voice was flat, unemotional. “I'm here to make sure you're okay, to get you home safe.”
I knew there was no use arguing with him. He did what he was told, like a good little soldier. Dean wouldn't stand up for me, wouldn't make Haze go away. He was a coward. Haze wasn't a coward. He wasn't afraid of anything. Hell, he didn't feel anything.
My eyes met his and I set my jaw. I'd go with him, but that didn't mean I'd like it.
Chapter 15
Haze
I
slammed the car door behind Leighton and kicked the back tire as I walked around to the driver's seat. The image of her on the black marble countertop was seared into my brain, and I blinked against the sting.
The man's shiny black hair, his face buried between her creamy thighs, the look of pleasure on her face.
I pushed the images away. All that mattered was that Leighton was okay, that she was safe. The man she'd been with wasn't a kidnapper. Still, the image of them together constricted my throat and I coughed sharply as I got in the car.
I smelled the marijuana on her, the alcohol on her breath, and I told myself the only reason I'd found her...
that
way was that she'd been too drunk and high to know what she'd been doing. A voice in my head reminded me that Leighton was free to flirt or fuck anyone she chose. I had no claim on anything she did. If anyone was allowed to be upset, it'd be that asshole Ricky. He was her boyfriend. He was the only one who had the right to be angry that she'd been fooling around with some stranger.
Except I didn't want to see her with Ricky either. I didn't want to see anyone with her. Anyone but me.
Leighton was slumped against the car window, as far from me as possible, her legs tucked tightly under her. Her dress rode high above her knees and I imagined her legs stretching out, how her firm muscles would move, her thighs part, the hem inching up. That's what that asshole Dean Phillips must have seen when she'd left with him. The hot thrust of need was accompanied by a sharp stab of jealousy.
Shit.
I couldn't deny it anymore. I was jealous of anyone who could caress Leighton, catch her scent, kiss her lips, or press against her warmth...
Fuck me.
As we drove back through LA and up into the hills toward her grandfather's mansion, I thought back over the failed evening. Over the memories Ian's departure had brought back. The fear when I'd realized she was gone. The disappointment in Devlin's eyes.
After I'd left Ricky in his hotel room, one of the images I'd seen flashed into my head, and I'd known what direction to search. Leighton would've wanted a fast getaway, and I'd seen a fast car racing away around the time she'd vanished. From there, I'd used Devlin's name and my own intimidation to get an address, arriving at the condo just in time to see Leighton clinging to her 'friend.'
They'd laughed and groped their way to the elevator, and then I'd watched him take a drag from a joint and lean toward her. The elevator doors had closed before I'd actually seen the kiss, but I'd known what was coming.
I should have stayed in the lobby, content that Leighton didn't appear to be stressed, but I hadn't exactly been thinking straight. All I'd been able to see was that man's hands pressing on the small of her back and I'd run up the twelve flights of stairs to the penthouse.
“You broke down his door,” Leighton said suddenly, breaking through my thoughts. Her words weren't slurred, but they were definitely fuzzy. “You're going to have to pay for that. Doubt Grandfather will foot that bill.”
“That's all you have to say?” I asked.
“I'm not the one who broke into a man's penthouse like a demented bull,” she said. Her voice had a sing-song quality to it, making her sound almost innocent, child-like.
“No, you're just the one who didn't bother to think about anyone else tonight.” I didn't bother to curb the edge to my words. I'd never said these things to her before, but she needed to hear it. “You're just the selfish brat who turned her brother's going-away party into a three-ring circus so the attention was on her.”
Leighton smirked at me and crossed her arms. “Actually, I did the opposite.”
She looked so pleased with herself that I wanted to shake her. I contented myself with a question. “You mean pretend you were drunk so we wouldn't suspect you could sneak away and endanger your life?”
“Endanger my life?” She let out a bitter laugh. “No, that's what Ian's doing. That's what you encouraged my brother to do.”
“Your brother has given his life over to serve this country,” I said, letting my disgust come through. “You gave yourself to a man with a mid-life crisis car and a vial of coke.”
“And what does that matter?” she asked. “No one really cares what I do, just as long as I take my trained monkey bodyguard with me.”
“What about Ricky?” I asked. I scowled, pissed that I even brought him up.
“What about him?” She swiveled in her seat to glare at me.
“You stole a bunch of cash from him, left him, and went off to hook up with some other guy.”
“You're saying you feel bad for Ricky?” The expression on her face clearly said she didn't believe that for a moment.
“Why not?” I asked. I didn't feel bad for Ricky, not really, but I felt sick at the thought that she'd used me the same way she had Ricky, the same way she had Dean. “You've been using him.”
“How?” Leighton asked.
“Oh come on,” I snarled. “You know that asshole's a waste of your time, but you're using him just like you use everyone else because you're terrified of anything that might possibly be real.”
The words hung in the car heavier than the smell of stale marijuana and scotch. Leighton leaned back into her seat and crossed her arms, her mouth still open in shock. My breath heaved in and out of my flared nostrils as I tried to keep my mouth shut. I should never have let Leighton distract me from my job, much less lose control, and now I’d blurted out more than I cared to admit.
“You're jealous,” she said finally.
“Of what?” I asked. “A spoiled brat and her equally childish boyfriend?”
“Oh, now I'm a brat?”
I hit the brakes harder than necessary as we reached the wrought-iron gates outside her grandfather's mansion. “You ran away. Not exactly the actions of a grown-up. Instead of accepting your brother's decision and seeing him off with the respect he deserved, you ran away to play with some slime ball. Did you even stop to think how it would make anyone else feel or were you too busy only thinking of yourself?”
Leighton got out of the car, unlocked a smaller gate, and stomped up the side path through the garden. Her shoulders were slumped and her arms wrapped tight around her middle as she walked. Had I made her cry?
Fuck.
I abandoned the car and ran after her. “I was afraid,” I called out.
“What?” Leighton spun around, her eyes wet with unshed tears.
“I was afraid someone had taken you, that you had been kidnapped. Any number of horrible scenarios went through my head. I was afraid I'd lost you.”
I reached for her, but she pulled back.
“You can't lose what you never had.” Her voice was sharp.