Page 36 of Nothing to You (Nothing to… #7)

NEW YORK, New York. Already it had been an adventure. Roxie’s Crimson tour featured tales and antics of the Crimson crew. Each location meant a new story and, wow, the woman could weave a yarn. Definitely wasn’t the standard tour.

It ended in her apartment. Yes, hers. Turned out Zairn had apartments in the building for his closest employees and friends.

She hadn’t checked the whole place out. Under time pressure, Roxie’s whirlwind, hand-waving explanation of where everything was happened fast. Then her friend disappeared to meet Zairn with the waiting press.

Flopping onto the couch face-first, her arm hung from the edge. Wishing there was someone to bring her wine, she couldn’t move and didn’t want to. What an exhausting day.

Rourke hadn’t seen her off. He’d been busy with Leon and a couple of other guys in the office as she bid farewell to her Hope colleagues. Mieux was the only one who came with her. She needed a change and didn’t like to be tied down. Much like her own sister.

On the floor, a few inches from her dangling hand, her purse flashed and made a noise she’d never heard before. Her purse didn’t usually flash. Her phone was the only thing in there that might ding that way.

Raising her heavy arm, she dropped it into the purse to rummage around until she found the device.

She dug it out and shifted onto her side to check the screen.

The whole thing was blacked out with a big red circle in the middle bearing the letter ‘X.’ Still, it flashed and sounded again.

A big red button. Hmm, no prizes for guessing who was responsible for the hijack.

She pressed the circle and spoke before he could. “Still stalking me?”

“Radley!” he said, like he was calling to her at a party. “Miss me yet? Don’t answer that. I know you miss me. I heard there was crying and wailing on the plane.”

“Uh huh, in your dreams maybe. I’d fire whoever told you that.”

“It was Mieux.”

“Another thing I don’t believe. She’s smarter than to share secrets with the likes of you, blabbermouth.”

“Vagabond.”

“Asshole.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he said, a smile in his voice.

“Not on your life,” she said. “Exit only. You know what happens when you try to get on at an off-ramp?”

“Santa puts you on the naughty list?”

“I remove your ability to penetrate anything ever again. How does that sound, Hotshot?”

“Like a felony.”

“Two minutes in a courtroom with you and any judge will take my side. Just like Mieux. She knows the score. I’m the one handing out the schedule and to-do list.”

“I’m the one handing out the paychecks. Yours and hers.”

“Oh, there’s no way you pay me enough for what I do for you.

And Brooker pays Mieux. The agency. If you don’t settle your account with them, that’s your problem, not Mieux’s.

Roxie likes Mieux too and views of her streams are hitting record high numbers.

We’ll avail ourselves of that megaphone if you start screwing women over. ”

“I will screw a woman over anything she chooses, the couch, the desk, the patio table, the upstairs banister. You remember that night?” Oh, he was infuriating, but fuck, he turned her on. “What happens to Huddle Hope if you decimate Mosaic for sport?”

“Mosaic wouldn’t go down over a single unpaid contract.

But we don’t need Mosaic. We’re partnered with Lola’s Liberty and right now, we’re their only beneficiary.

We’re the only contract they have. Their focus is ours.

I feel good about our chances. Johann doesn’t like you. He’d be happy to say goodbye to you.”

“Johann doesn’t like you either.”

Fair point. One she couldn’t argue with because the doctor butted heads with everyone.

“Franco called me,” she said. “While I was in the air. He gave me a video tour of his London pad. Very nice. He invited me to visit in person. I’ll need a few vacation days, weeks, maybe. It’ll be better to see it up close, personal, you know? Right in there, all the way.”

“If you leave the country, they might not let you back in. Scratch that, they won’t let you back in.

Good luck fighting Homeland on that one.

I told you I work with the DOD, didn’t I?

I know people.” He sighed. “The loyal employee is too busy anyway. He has to make a good impression on his new coworkers.”

Rolling to her back, she pushed her hair from her forehead. “It didn’t escape my notice that the two men you sent overseas were the same two who wanted to shtup me, or I wanted to shtup.”

“Gotta pick up that game, Radley. You want it, you’ve gotta make it happen or it passes you by. And you know me, there’s no point in playing with you if you don’t see me winning. I like the glory. I bask in the glory. Thank you for noticing.”

“Playing with me? You’re not winning. You don’t know what to do with yourself without me. Are you all sad and lonely, baby?”

“No, I figured you’d need a pick me up. Being so far away from my cock can’t be easy on you.”

“And you thought hearing your voice would help? Wrong again, Hotshot. It only reminds me you’re not here and I really need someone to bring me—”

Her door opened. No knock or call. It just opened, and a server came in with wine on a tray.

The guy laid it out in front of her, filled the glass, then disappeared without a word.

“You were saying?”

“I’m not impressed,” she said. “Have you been watching me this whole time? You’ve probably hacked security.”

“I don’t need to hack it. We all have access to each other’s security,” he said. “Though I wouldn’t mind a video. There’s no camera in the apartment I can access until you open up your laptop, so…”

“Maybe later,” she said, stretching as she sat up. “I have wine.”

“Want to find a booth?”

She smiled, tucking her feet under her. “Feeling nostalgic?” she asked, and the smile faded. That was a lifetime ago. “Are you home? In your lair?”

“Yeah.” He paused. “The walls echo without you inside them.”

And how would she feel that night without him inside her? “Been a while since I’ve slept alone.”

Discomfort prickled, though it was out of place.

In New York, her career would fly, especially with Roxie and Zairn’s support.

This should be a happy time, an exciting time.

She’d never been a homebody, never yearned for home.

Maybe because she moved to a new apartment so often.

New York was exhilarating, but it didn’t feel like home.

Not that it should after less than a day.

But there was something missing. It missed something. That reality hit her the moment she stepped off the private jet. No amount of pampering and high life could alter or better what she needed most.

“Who says you’re sleeping alone?” he asked, his voice a low rumble. “We don’t have restrictions anymore, Babycakes. That means you and I don’t ever have to hang up.”

Sounded good to her.

Being in the new city was for a good cause. She didn’t want Rourke to think that she couldn’t hack it on her own.

“New York is incredible,” she said. “Roxie’s been amazing.”

“Her girls are important to her. Don’t ask why. With the latitude Zairn gives her, the Kyst-meister could have her own army of personal shoppers.”

“Not every woman gets her kicks with a credit card.”

“Yeah, I know how you get your kicks,” he said. “What are you wearing?”

Just like old times again. “That’s your trivial?”

“Nothing trivial about it. That information is valuable and if you won’t turn on your camera…”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to turn on her camera. If she turned on hers, he’d have to reciprocate.

“Is that a good idea? You already miss me so much; won’t it break your heart to see what you can’t have?”

“I can have it any time I want it, babe,” he said, ignoring her mocking pout. “Your pussy’s just waiting for me. I choose not to get on a plane.”

“Because you don’t want to embarrass yourself. Who needs you? There’s a nightclub here in the building. Lots of drunk guys, easy prey. And Roxie’s friend Toria knows all the best dating hotspots, where to find the best guys.”

“The best guys are here in California. I’m surprised Toria travels so far for a decent date.”

“California is okay. If you’re loaded and pretty.”

“I am,” he boasted.

Closing her eyes, she absorbed the intonation of his voice. The seconds ticked by. His breathing synced with hers and she soaked in every moment.

“Tell me something real, Xavie.”

“All day I was spacing out,” he admitted. “Staring at your desk. Which is stupid because it’s been your desk for thirty seconds. You are coming back, right? Otherwise I wasted a heap on the remodel.”

“If I don’t find some richer, sexier guy with a bigger cock, then yeah, I’m coming back.”

“When?”

She smiled because the raw need in that single word told her more than she’d get from a thousand cameras.

“I want your hands on me,” she whispered. “I took for granted how you touch me.”

The texture of his skin, his warmth, his need. At the time, it was no big deal because it was right there for both of them to enjoy at their leisure.

“We should find a booth.”

“We should,” she said, getting up.

Roxie said her things were in her bedroom. Sure enough, she found her suitcase and her laptop. She slipped it out to turn it on. Putting the call on speakerphone, she tossed it to the bed.

“Doesn’t sound like you want to.”

“I want to do something else,” she said, stripping.

“Put the camera on. Impress me, Hotshot.” Loosening her hair, she shook her fingers through it and lay down on the bed, adjusting the angle of the computer as it came to life.

“I hate that you do that.” That was a flat lie, as her grin attested.

It powered up and the camera immediately came on.

“I don’t miss you. It’s late and you’re cheaper than escort services. ”

From the broad view of him in the darkness, she could tell he was using a camera mounted above his wall of screens.

“This is more like it,” he said.

“Closer, Xavie.” Why should he get such an intimate view of her when hers was from such a distance? “I don’t want to be so far from you.”

“Shouldn’t have got on the plane then, should you? Still pissed I made this real world?”

A flash changed the picture from the distant camera to what she assumed was his tablet. Right there in his lap, where she wished she could be.

“Shut up and get your cock out,” she said, licking her fingertips and lowering them to her clit. “Tuck me in, Xavie.”