Chapter 3
The initiation ceremony was this Friday, and my father’s phone calls have increased over this past weekend. Every call was in the disguise of checking in on me, but he’s never checked on me continuously before, so he wasn’t fooling anyone.
He knew it, also.
Jonathan Lexington was as brilliant as they came. The man was a Wallstreet banker and financier, and he hadn’t made billions being stupid. My mother, Tami Lexington, was what you expected the wife of Jonathan Lexington to be, and they made the perfect power couple.
My mother was arm candy, and she spent a fortune every year to make sure she looked the part to perfection. While they had both given up on their wedding vows ages ago, they were still very dedicated to the Lexington empire they’ve built. A younger, prettier version of my mother was not going to come along and ruin what she’s built. Same could be said for my father. He had no problem with my mother straying as long as he still held her leash tightly in his fist.
Still, while my mother’s job was to look good on my father’s arm, she wasn’t simple like a lot of socialite wives. Tami Lexington was just as formidable as her husband, and together they made one hell of a team.
Evident by this upcoming Friday night’s activities.
However, if there was one thing that could be said of being raised by a man who viewed obstacles as challenges and a woman who viewed ambition as a religious calling, it was that I didn’t know how to quit or settle. I was only twenty-two, but I had stopped being young on my fourteenth birthday when I’d been told what was expected of me. From then on, it had been nothing but focus and determination.
If there was something I wanted, nothing could stop me from getting it.
Also, even though I knew my initiation class was made up of the best of the best in my generation, I still wasn’t intimidated. I’d get a feel for each guy and go from there, and the only way the girls would come to matter was if they ended up together. At that point, I’d have to reevaluate and research the girl’s background a bit more. Again, Kincaid Black was the only wild card among them.
Plus, the rules were simple: you didn’t fuck around with your girl unless you planned on marrying her. That was the only condition to approve a relationship with your chosen female. You had to marry her if you planned on sticking your dick in her.
There were no exceptions.
That non-negotiable rule came into play about thirty years ago when one of the chosen females had become a woman scorned and had threatened the entire organization’s foundation. Pillow talk had made her privy to all kinds of confidential shit, and that had made her dangerous. The rumor was that when she’d been cast aside by her sponsor, she had worked her skills on his father. Both being high-profile and powerful, she had been bathing in a fountain of information that she should never had known.
Another rumor was that she had taken her own life before she could cause any irrevocable damage, but I suspected the girl hadn’t met her maker voluntarily. That was just me, though.
So, now, if you got involved with your chosen female, you’d better have plans to marry her. Since a lot of guys didn’t want to get tied down before the money really started rolling in, and they started basking in the high life, every man since then has kept things strictly professional.
Or so those were the rumors.
I hadn’t been concerned with the players until these past few years, though. I could give two fucks what happened thirty years ago. All I cared about were the recent years, and how I needed to use the past to shape my future.
Right now, I was on my way to Business Strategies, hoping to avoid another phone call from my father on why he thought it’s a bad idea that I was opting not to choose a girl for my initiation. My reasons were endless, but-
All thoughts came to halt as a body crashed into me, and I was certain I would never be the same again. As a matter of fact, I knew it.
My right arm wrapped around a soft, lush female form as I steadied the both of us to keep us from falling. “Oh, God,” came an embarrassed female voice. “I’m so sorry.” I’d been about to tell her it was okay, but then she looked up at me, and my entire world stopped.
It.
Just.
Stopped.
The energy sizzling beneath the surface of my skin was not my imagination. The blood rushing through my ears was not a casual reaction. The pressure in my chest was not normal.
Dark sapphire eyes were looking up at me and I knew her face. I didn’t know her, but I’ve seen her around campus from time to time.
The maybe once.
I’d never really paid her much mind, but that was because I hadn’t sought out any females. My future has always taken precedence over pussy, so I partook when I was in need, and that was about it.
But now?
I walked us forward until her back hit the building wall, and I was looming over her. Her eyes were wide, and she looked…spooked. But, fuck, she was beautiful this close up. I’d always thought her attractive when she’d fallen into my visual space before, but holding her like this, her face looking up at mine…she was breathtaking.
The arm I had wrapped around her tightened, and I let my backpack fall off my shoulder as I planted my other hand on the building’s wall next to her head.
“Are you okay?” I asked, very aware that my voice sounded rough and unfriendly.
Her blue eyes danced over my face, and I almost groaned as her tits pressed against my ribs. She was almost an entire foot shorter than I was, and my shoulders were wide enough, and my body was large enough to practically hide her from everyone else’s view.
My dick started getting hard.
She closed her eyes and shook her head, presumably snapping herself out of her stupor, and I loved how her black hair danced around her perfect fucking head. She had no bangs to distract from her face, and it looked to hang straight, stopping just below her shoulders. Her brows were just as dark and arched over a pair of cobalt-colored irises. Her nose was straight and dainty, and her cheeks were rosy, and fuck my life, her lips were full, pink, and immaculate. All of it enhanced by flawless, alabaster skin.
“I…I’m f…fine,” she stuttered. “Are…are you okay?”
Not really.
“I’m fine,” I lied. I was nowhere near fine. I was as farthest from fine as a man could get. Nothing turned shit upside down like getting blindsided.
“I’m…I’m so sorry, so, so sorry,” she repeated, still stuttering. “I…sh…should have been pa…paying better attention.”
I wanted to kiss her.
I wanted to kiss that stutter from her lips. I didn’t like seeing her act nervous around me. Granted, I had her trapped between my body and the wall, so there was that.
“What’s your name?”
“My…my name?”
I leaned forward, crowding her a bit more. “Yes,” I replied, low and impatient. “What’s your name?”
She started nibbling on her lower lip, and I almost took over for her. “Uh, Rylee,” she finally answered. “Rylee Madden.”
I gave her a tight nod to let her know I heard her. “I’m Stone Lexington.”
Her face turned a pretty shade of blush. “I…I know,” she said in a low whisper, and I almost smirked.
She knew who I was.
I finally stepped away and pulled my arm from around her waist. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She let out a deep sigh, almost as if she could finally breathe again. “I am, thank you,” she assured me. “I really am sor-”
“It’s not a problem, Rylee Madden,” I said, interrupting another apology. “No one was hurt.” Rylee smiled up at me, and any chance of her getting out of this unscathed just went up in flames.
“O…okay,” she replied. “I’ll…I’ll see you around.”
I took another step back, and I watched as she readjusted her backpack, then hurried off to wherever she had been rushing to. The second she was out of sight I pulled my phone out.
“Yeah?” the voice on the other end greeted.
“I want everything you can find on Rylee Madden, a student at HU,” I instructed. “I want the same kind of background as the recent ones you’ve done, and I want it by Wednesday.”
“No problem,” Chicago, my PI, replied before hanging up.
I guess I was picking a girl for Friday after all.