Laikyn
At one o’clock on the dot, Rule summoned me to the outdoor living area. It wasn’t a formal space, but it was probably the most appealing part of the house. At least what I’d seen so far.
The back wall of the house was made of retractable glass. Just beyond that were three long, deep steps that started the downward cascade of the backyard. The rectangular patio space was covered partially by solid roofing and partially by wide trellises that allowed some light to filter down. On the right was a wall with a wide-screen television mounted on it, to the left, a small outdoor kitchen sectioned off by a bar with three wooden stools. In the center were two extra-deep lounging sofas facing each other atop a large bamboo rug with a hideous neon-colored geometric pattern. Thankfully, it was mostly hidden beneath the furniture. Last but not least, two potted Areca palms stood on either side of the opening that led to the swimming pool.
Like a lot of real estate in California, the lot was long and narrow. Enormous hedge trees—at least twelve feet tall and crammed together to create a wall—ran down both sides of the property to add privacy from the neighbors. It was the only green in the space except for two rectangular patches of grass, about four feet wide and twenty feet long, on each side of the pool. Waldo’s spot was on the left, I figured, since there was nothing on the grass. On the right side were two covered lounge chairs/bed contraptions that would give a king-size bed a run for its money.
The pool itself was lovely. Also rectangular, it jutted out from the house. It had a sun shelf on the end closest to the house and a hot tub, complete with a gentle flowing waterfall on the other.
Not exactly where a girl envisioned saying her wedding vows, but I figured it could’ve been worse.
The ceremony took all of twelve minutes from start to finish before we were pronounced husband and wife. The nuptials weren’t sealed with a kiss but rather a dismissive head nod from Rule before he turned his attention to the officiant to finish the paperwork.
“What? No birdseed for luck?” I muttered, strolling into the house and leaving Rule behind to deal with the officiant.
Twelve minutes and I was now … Mrs. Rule?
He apparently didn’t have a last name. At all. And I don’t mean like Prince or Pink or Madonna. I meant legally, he had only one name. It was the weirdest shit I’d ever heard, but based on what the officiant said, it wasn’t as uncommon as people believed. I wanted to ask if that was the case with Jinx, but I figured it was a question better left for later. Probably not wise to be inquiring about another man on your wedding day.
So, did that make me Laikyn now? Just Laikyn? Or, I guess, technically, I could make Rule take my last name. Then he would have one of his own. Jinx could have it, too, if he wanted.
The thought made me snort a laugh.
No, neither seemed like a Mr. Quinn to me. Then again, I wasn’t sure Quinn suited me all that much, either. Since it wasn’t a family name, I didn’t really have any ties to it. My mother was born Renee Noblespreyer, but she had it legally changed when she moved to California to become an actress. And because she claimed she didn’t know who my father was, she’d passed her fake name on to me. I guess I should thank her since Laikyn Audrey Marilyn Noblespreyer would’ve been a mouthful. Seriously. I didn’t have one middle name; I had two. My mother said she couldn’t choose between naming me after Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe, so she opted for both.
I went to the kitchen and poured a glass of water, staring out the back windows at the two men deep in conversation while the officiant finished something up at the patio table. I’d been briefly introduced to Red Wally, one of Rule’s employees, moments before the nuptials. Like Jinx, Red Wally was a witness, and based on his expression, this was par for the course for his boss. He sure as shit hadn’t seemed surprised to learn Rule was marrying a woman he didn’t know.
As for me … well, my prior behavior never would’ve alluded to me having a quick and dirty wedding in someone’s backyard with the Hollywood sign looming in the distance. I mean, shit, Wes Carver had been boyfriend number two, and that was seriously rare for a twenty-two-year-old living in Beverly Hills.
So, to sum it up, last night, I went on a date with Boyfriend #2, and today I was hitched to Husband #1.
No one ever said my life was boring.
I still couldn’t believe I went through with it. Not a single second thought or butterfly in sight, either. After sharing breakfast with Jinx, I excused myself to my bedroom, where I spent a couple of hours unpacking my things and setting up my canvases. Right before the ceremony, I took a minute to clean up, not bothering to change out of the capris and T-shirt I’d put on this morning. I’d applied only minimal makeup, but other than that, I hadn’t given much effort to my appearance.
Thankfully (and perhaps a bit regretfully), there were no pictures. However, I did intend to sneak a selfie with Rule at some point today. I mean, sure, this was all some sort of convoluted debt reduction plan, but in the eyes of the law, we were officially wed. Might as well capture the moment for eternity. You had to have something to reflect on when you were old and gray and reminiscing on the highs and lows of your existence. Oddly, I would consider this one of the highs.
The weirdest part—and I didn’t use that term loosely because … well, obvious reasons—was that I hadn’t realized how old Rule was until right before we were wed. His driver’s license had been out on the table, noting him to be thirty-six years old as of April 7th. I considered myself fairly good at guessing ages, so I’d been leaning somewhere in the mid-thirties range. Turned out I was right. However, with people like Rule, whose eyes told a story of pain and sorrow, it wasn’t easy to tell for sure.
As for Jinx, he looked younger. Not by much. I pegged him around thirty, but again, it was all a guessing game.
“Did we miss it?” a deep voice asked.
“Probably,” a woman said.
“That sucks balls.”
“No, you suck balls.”
“The fuck I do. Mine are always eager, in case you’re offering now.”
“Fuck off.”
“No, you fuck off.”
The voices came from the front of the house, and I peeked out of the kitchen in time to see Rhyan—the woman from last night—and a … I glanced out the window to ensure I wasn’t seeing things because now there were two Red Wallys.
“Whoa,” the Red Wally Doppelgänger said. “You the wife?”
I stared at the redheaded man with the glittering brown eyes and well-maintained goatee—it was the only thing different between him and Red Wally. Like his identical twin, he was a definite ginger. The fiery orange hair on his head was the giveaway, but the multitude of freckles on his face, nose, and arms solidified the point.
“Ignore him. He’s an idiot. I didn’t officially introduce myself last night,” Rhyan said as she approached, depositing several bags on the counter before holding out her hand to me. “Rhyan Ambrose.”
I shook it because it felt rude not to.
“This here is William Hoffstadtler,” she said, nodding toward Red Wally’s mirror image.
“My friends call me Willy.”
Willy and Wally … that was … I wondered if there was any relation to Waldo, the chocolate lab. I couldn’t contain my grin.
“The man who doesn’t suck balls,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”
He barked a laugh, then jerked his chin toward the back of the house. “Speaking of … the ball and chain hooked up already?”
“Yep,” I said, feeling like any minute the rabbit was going to make an appearance, and I was going to veer off down a dark hole into another dimension. I held out my hand to let him admire the non-existent wedding ring on my finger. “You like?”
Willy played along, gently clasping my fingers and turning my hand this way and that as though admiring the sparkle of the imaginary diamond. “Impressive. I didn’t know he had it in him.” He winked. “Welcome to the family.”
“You one of his other wives?” I deadpanned.
His expression went from amused to downright jovial as he huffed a laugh. “I like you, girl. I really like you.”
Rhyan, who was grinning from ear to ear, began pulling paper cartons out of the bags and setting them on the island. “I brought food.”
“And I brought an appetite,” Willy said before nodding toward the back windows. “I’ll go see if he needs anything.”
“Do they call him Red Willy?” I asked Rhyan when he stepped outside.
“That’s only reserved for Wally.”
I was nosy, so I kept going. “How come?”
Rhyan stopped what she was doing to look out the back window, her dark eyebrows arched in confusion. “Honestly, I think because it’s easier to say.”
“Versus?”
“Willy and Wally? Try saying it several times fast.”
Mentally, I did exactly that because that was what you did when someone said to.
Rhyan laughed. “Try it in the throes of orgasm. It’s even harder.”
My eyebrows arched to my hairline as I stared at her, processing what that meant.
“Oh, girl,” she said with a husky chuckle. “You were born and raised in LA. Don’t tell me you haven’t encountered a throuple before.”
“I’m sure I have,” I said because telling her no seemed like the wrong answer. “So that’s what the three of you are? A throuple?”
She set one of the containers on the counter and peered at me. It looked as though she was trying to determine how to answer.
Rhyan chewed on her lip for a moment, then nodded and shifted into motion once again. “They fuck me, I fuck them. I think that’s a suitable description.”
Very interesting. And, of course, my curious brain conjured at least three dozen questions related to that announcement, but I forced them back, opting for something more appropriate to a first encounter.
“Do you all work for Rule?”
“Yep.” She produced plates and chopsticks.
“Do you all … do what you did last night?”
Rhyan smiled, and the woman had a really lovely smile.
With her short black hair, which was cut and styled like Robert Smith’s from The Cure back in the 90s—only without the height or the tangles—she had an edge to her that I admired for some reason. When I looked at her, I immediately thought badass. Although I couldn’t say why that was. Maybe it was the fact she was dressed all in black, from her T-shirt to her short skirt to the Doc Martens on her feet.
Despite her taste in careers, she seemed normal.
Well, besides the fact she was getting railed by hot, redheaded twins.
“We do what needs to be done,” she said simply.
I decided I wasn’t going to pry because I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear their war stories. I certainly didn’t want to hear the details of what it took to clean up a crime scene or to stage it elsewhere. Plausible deniability and all that.
“I suggest you eat if you’re hungry. Once Jinx gets in here, he’ll clean out whatever’s left.”
Instinct had me turning to look for Jinx. He was squatting down by the pool, petting Waldo while Rule scribbled something on a paper the officiant passed him.
“I take it you’ve met Jinx,” Rhyan noted.
“I have, yes.”
“He say anything to you?”
“Oh, we had a nice long chat. His vocabulary … I’ve never met a man who was so articulate.”
There was a brief moment of silence before a huffed, “Seriously?”
I glanced at her over my shoulder. “No. But it was the best silent conversation I’ve ever had.”
She laughed.
I turned to face her. “Is his mutism by choice or medical condition?”
Rhyan canted her head as though considering. “Damn good question.”
I found it oddly interesting that they seemed to be close, yet no one knew much about the other.
“How many more of you are there? That work for Rule, I mean.”
“That’s it. Just the four of us.”
I looked back when I heard footsteps and noticed Rule standing just inside the house. His gaze was on me, but I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking. I did, however, like the way he looked at me.
Probably not the sanest thing to acknowledge when I was standing in a house full of people who likely owned stock in cleaning supply companies whose products removed blood stains. Yet, I couldn’t deny there was a spark of something between us. I first noticed it when I opened the door and saw him standing on my mother’s front porch. He was exactly as I remembered him from all those years ago. Dark and mysterious and insanely sexy.
“You good?” he asked me as he moved closer.
“Yes. I was just learning the names of your employees.”
“You ready to eat, boss?”
Rule looked over as Red Wally walked in. “You tell Jinx there was food?”
Red Wally nodded. “He said he’d be here in a minute.”
“Said it?” I asked—because why not?
Red Wally stopped just inside the door and huffed a laugh. “I like this girl.”
Was it wrong that I liked that it was the consensus?
I spent the next two hours watching Willy and Red Wally roughhouse in the pool—which Rule had confirmed was heated—while Jinx finished off the leftovers and Rhyan sat in a chair on the back patio and stared at her cell phone.
It was true. Jinx didn’t speak. At all. He communicated via text messaging with the others, or so it appeared since every time he used his phone, one of theirs would chime. His lack of vocal conversation didn’t seem to bother any of them at all. They talked openly and even relayed what Jinx said without preamble, keeping him front and center in the conversation. It was apparent the five of them were a cohesive unit, and I found myself wanting to be included, although I didn’t understand why.
“You good?” Rule asked as he stepped up behind my chair.
I was sitting at the outdoor bar with my feet propped up on one of the other stools, my gaze on the two redheaded men acting like children.
I tilted my head back and looked at him, smiling because it felt oddly right to do so. I couldn’t remember a time when I felt like I fit in anywhere. Not at home with my mother, certainly not at her famous-people parties, and not with what few friends I’d had growing up. But here … I was an outcast in a sea of outcasts, and it felt strangely comfortable.
“I am. You?”
“Yeah.”
When he didn’t look at me, I brought my head back to level and stared out into the bright afternoon sunlight. My scalp tingled from Rule’s nearness. Or at least I thought that was the case until I realized his fingers had brushed through my hair, and the hairs were pulling at my scalp, causing sensations to erupt unexpectedly.
He moved away a moment later, and I smiled to myself, wondering if he’d felt it, too. I doubted it, but it was nice to think perhaps he was attracted to me in some way. I mean, I was his wife. As strange as that was to think, it did give us the perfect opportunity to explore on a physical level. I certainly wouldn’t mind. The guy was insanely hot, and I had never had this sort of instant attraction to anyone. Well, unless you counted Jinx, but I was keeping that tidbit to myself because, you know, married.
Then again, if Rule wasn’t interested, perhaps he would be willing to let Jinx step into his role. Or perhaps maybe I could try on that whole ménage à trois thing. It seemed to be working well for Rhyan. I wasn’t sure whether her relationship with Red Wally and Willy was long-term or merely a dalliance, but they seemed happy. They certainly gave each other shit like people who liked each other, anyway.
My gaze shifted to Jinx, and I briefly imagined what it would be like to be crushed between him and Rule. As my brain conjured the image, I swore I could feel the heat of their bodies, the warm press of their hands over my skin… A shiver danced down my spine, and I couldn’t hide it. Since Jinx chose that moment to look at me, he noticed, and I was pretty sure his eyes had darkened.
I tore my gaze from him and looked at Rule, only to see he was also watching me.
This wasn’t going to be easy; that much I knew for sure.
Since I hadn’t spoken to Rule about the terms of this marriage—whether we would be consummating the ritual—it probably wasn’t wise to fantasize too much. I mean, I didn’t see the harm in exploring what was right in front of me. This time, I was referring to Rule—the man I’d married—not Jinx. Although, the more I thought about it, the more I liked that idea, too.
There was a good chance my overactive libido was going to get me in some serious trouble.
I wasn’t looking for a fairy tale romance, but I had no problem consummating this transaction with some kinky sex. Rule seemed like the perfect partner because it was obvious he didn’t form attachments. Everything about him was cold. Even the way he interacted with the people he was closest to. I didn’t think he’d said more than two-word sentences at any point since they’d arrived. And if he had some weird hangup about virtue and shit, maybe he wouldn’t mind if Jinx acted as a stand-in husband for the time being. I got the feeling he was fucking wild in the bedroom.
A buzzing sound came from behind me, and I recognized it as Rule’s cell phone. It had been going off throughout the day. Every time it did, he glanced at it. Occasionally, he would type a response; otherwise, he would tuck it back in his pocket.
“Your things are here,” he said. “You want them put anywhere specific?”
“Um. My room’s fine, I guess.”
He nodded, then disappeared to the front of the house.
I got up to follow him because it seemed the right thing to do. I found him talking to what appeared to be a delivery driver. He passed him a wad of cash, then said something as he pointed toward the front door.
The guy’s eyes were enormous as he glanced at the cash and then at Rule. Finally, he got with the program and barked a command at his partner, who was beginning to load boxes onto one of those rolling things—a hand truck, I think they called it.
“Show them where to go,” Rule instructed me.
Because it looked like they had the difficult part taken care of, I led the way.
* * *
Rule
After Laikyn’s things were delivered and after everyone left for the evening, I found myself alone in the house.
Laikyn had disappeared into her bedroom a couple of hours ago, and Jinx had remained out by the pool, where he spent a good amount of time on any given day. Although tempted, I resisted the urge to talk to him about what I’d witnessed earlier. My eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on me when I saw him watching Laikyn. First in the kitchen over breakfast, then after the brief ceremony this afternoon. I rarely saw Jinx interested in anyone, so I immediately picked up on it.
I couldn’t really blame him, though, could I? There was something uniquely enchanting about Laikyn Quinn. It was more than skin deep. Her zest for life, despite the obstacles in her path, was impossible to ignore. There hadn’t been a moment of awkwardness all day, as though she’d been here for a year, not a few hours. She fit right in, giving as good as she got, and I wouldn’t pretend I wasn’t even more fascinated by her. In fact, I’d felt like a piece was missing ever since she’d excused herself to her bedroom. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, nor did I want to interrupt. I was trying to be respectful of her privacy, but I had things to do. The only reason I wasn’t out taking care of business was because she told me last night that she wanted the details of her kidnapping. I figured it was a conversation that needed to occur sooner rather than later, so I was waiting around.
Unfortunately, I didn’t do well with idle time, so at a quarter to eight, I decided to go to her.
I knocked on her bedroom door, prepared to wait.
“Come in.”
Not one to hesitate, I opened the door, and as soon as I saw her, it was as though I was doing it for the first time. The same thing had happened that morning. Looking at Laikyn was like seeing the sunrise for the very first time or feeling the static electricity from lightning. It was a magnificent jolt to the senses because it felt ethereal and brief.
From the first photo I saw of her, I’d been fascinated by her. She reminded me of a butterfly, the way she had morphed into this sassy, sexy young woman. Marrying her was likely the dumbest thing I’d ever done, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. I was doing this for her, even if she would never understand my reasons.
Laikyn was standing at an easel with a pencil in her hand. Her long dark hair, sprinkled with a multi-hue of colors, hung between her shoulder blades, forming a sharply cut V that seemed to point directly at her delectable ass encased in a pair of black cotton shorts. Her black tank top had risen on the right side, giving a glimpse of the curve of her waist. When she turned to face me, my eyes shifted to her breasts before I forced them to her face.
This was the stupidest thing I’d ever done in my life. No sane man would bring a temptation as sweet as this one into his life. Not willingly. Yet here she was.
“What do you think?” she prompted as she stepped aside.
I realized she was referring to the drawing she’d been working on.
She smiled as I moved closer. “I figured we needed to capture the moment somehow.”
I kept moving until I was beside her, although I didn’t recall giving my legs direction to do so. She’d drawn a picture of the two of us on a large white canvas. Shoulders and above, looking at one another. Her attention to detail was extraordinary, from the curve of her jaw to the deep set of my eyes. I wasn’t sure how she managed to do it. Somehow, she’d captured every emotion I’d pretended I hadn’t felt during that brief civil ceremony when our lives had become irrevocably intertwined.
“It’s…”
Laikyn chuckled. “You don’t have to be nice. My mother tells me all the time—”
“It’s incredible,” I interrupted, unable to look away. I couldn’t explain what the draw was about it, but I was lost for a moment, recalling the words we’d exchanged. There had been nothing heartfelt about that brief moment in time, yet there was a foreign connection in there somewhere, and she’d somehow captured it in the drawing.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her attention shifting to the canvas. “I call it two souls brought together by chance.”
“Chance had nothing to do with it,” I muttered, then cleared my throat because I damn sure hadn’t meant for the words to come out.
When I looked at Laikyn, she was staring at me, her pretty pink lips parted, her green eyes round with wonder. I didn’t like looking at her because she was so beautiful, I felt an ache in my chest when I did. It made no sense at all and had no bearing on what we were doing here, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Did you need something?” she finally said, laying the pencil on an open black case on the nightstand.
“You can use the rec room,” I told her, nodding toward the canvas. “If you want more room to spread out. It’s air-conditioned.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
I slid my hand through my hair and stepped back toward the door. “You said you wanted to know the details about the kidnapping.”
“Yeah. I … uh…” She glanced down, wringing her hands. “I don’t know if I can handle that right now. I mean, it is my wedding day. Why ruin it?”
I waited for her to look at me. When she did, I felt the full effect of her beauty somewhere in my chest.
“Understood. When you’re ready.”
I turned to leave but stopped when she called my name.
“Would you mind if I got in the pool?”
“No,” I said curtly, then walked away, not wanting to dwell on the idea of Laikyn changing into her swimsuit.
I went to the highboy in the dining room, retrieved a highball glass, and added two ice cubes. I opened a can of Sprite. I filled the glass halfway, then took it outside. The drink wouldn’t dull my senses or make me forget about the woman who was now the center of my universe, but it was the best I could do. I didn’t drink, and I didn’t do drugs, both conscientious choices. Sex with nameless, faceless strangers was the only vice I served these days.
As I stepped outside, my phone chimed. I knew who it was, so I pulled it out to look at the screen.
— Where’s Laikyn?
“Putting on her swimsuit,” I told Jinx, glancing to where he sat on the outdoor sofa.
His left eyebrow arched.
“Yeah,” I said. “Hell on earth, my friend.”
He smiled.
And though I didn’t succumb to things that clouded my senses, apparently, I was a glutton for punishment because while I didn’t want to think about Laikyn changing, I damn sure didn’t want to miss the opportunity of seeing her in her swimsuit. I fell into one of the chairs at the side of the pool and stared up at the hill behind the house, wondering whether she wore a one-piece or a bikini.
Bikini, I learned a few minutes later when she came out, carrying a towel and a glass of wine. Jinx was the source of the wine. This afternoon, he’d ordered groceries, informing me that my new wife deserved to have things she liked on hand. Evidently, she liked wine. I wondered whether he knew that as fact or he merely guessed. Then I wondered why the fuck I even cared.
I pretended to be interested in the water, but my gaze was firmly on her, skimming all the smooth, curvy lines of her body as she took the steps down one at a time. I’d never seen a more perfect woman before. Or maybe I had, but none of them compared to Laikyn. There was something about her that called to something deep inside me. She woke whatever it was and brought light to a very dark place.
It was premature and juvenile, this lust I’d formed for her, but it was there all the same. I refused to give it freedom, though, keeping it caged where it belonged. As much as I wanted to fuck this woman, it wouldn’t benefit either of us. Certainly not her because this would all come crashing down when she learned the truth, and while I had her best interest in mind, I doubted she would believe it.
“So how does this marriage work?” she asked, her sultry tone carrying across the water as she dipped her shoulders under.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Well … I guess … will you and I be fucking?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised by her candor, but I was. Most women prettied up the terms, choosing to refer to it as sleeping together or some such idiocy. Not Laikyn.
“No.”
“That’s really too bad,” she said with a sigh. “I’m still trying to figure out what the benefit of this arrangement is. Sex qualifies as a benefit, in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” I muttered, then took a drink, wishing for the first time it was vodka, not Sprite.
“Then will you be fucking other women?”
“No,” I said quickly. Too quickly.
“Really?”
My phone chimed. Another text from Jinx.
— Will you be fucking me?
I didn’t answer either of them.
“Am I permitted to fuck other men?”
I swallowed the no that lingered on the tip of my tongue. “If that’s what you need.”
My phone chimed again.
— Is she permitted to fuck me?
I didn’t respond.
“Is Jinx included in my list of options?” Laikyn inquired.
I met her gaze across the glittering water. “Do you want to fuck Jinx?”
“I damn sure wouldn’t turn him down,” she said with a laugh as she casually moved farther away. “I was just wondering.”
I got the feeling she was tormenting me on purpose. I didn’t know this woman. Not really. Only from the reports Jinx had provided over the years and what I’d seen on social media and the society pages. As I said, I’d kept tabs on her, feeding this insane addiction. Unfortunately, at least for me, I liked what I’d learned. But nothing had prepared me for meeting the woman face to face. She was sassy and sexy, and her zest for life was palpable. I even liked that she asked ridiculous questions about personal things. There wasn’t another woman like her, of that I was certain.
Laikyn Quinn was the opposite of her mother. She didn’t seek the spotlight; she clung to the shadows. What little I’d seen, she blended into the background as though preferring to remain on the fringes. I understood that need because I felt it, too. People knew my name. Some even talked about me as though I was this mythical creature who could make miracles happen. I was nothing more than a man who lacked a conscience and carried a broken moral compass. I wouldn’t apologize for who I was because the world I lived in had made me this way.
“Have you and Jinx ever fucked a woman at the same time?”
The question caught me off-guard, but again, it shouldn’t have. I suspected Laikyn was going to keep me on my toes. She didn’t hide her curiosity. She should’ve been a journalist because she had this fierce ability to get to the heart of the matter.
“Once or twice,” I admitted, ignoring my phone when it chimed.
“Mmm.” She dipped her head under the water and came up with her hair slicked back. “That could be fun, too.”
Yeah, my dick was definitely in agreement. The fucker.
“Have you and Jinx ever fucked each other?”
This time, I censored my response, choosing instead to issue a warning. “Laikyn…”
She smiled. “I thought so.”
I glanced over to see Jinx grinning down at his phone. He wasn’t helping the situation one fucking bit.
“It’s a good thing I brought my vibrator,” Laikyn mused, moving toward us.
I groaned.
She chuckled. “You know, we could use this as an opportunity to ease the sexual frustration.”
“No,” I said fiercely.
She didn’t appear fazed by my tone. “Why? You worried you’ll get attached? Yeah, that would suck for you, Rule. I’ve got nothing to give.”
It wasn’t only the words she said but the way she said them that captured my attention. As though she genuinely believed she had nothing to offer. I didn’t detect any deceit in her tone. In fact, she sounded a lot like I did when I explained to the women I fucked that I wouldn’t be spending the night or coming back for more.
“Are you worried you’re too old for me?” she asked, grinning as she turned to go back in the other direction. “Too close to your golden years, Rule?”
I didn’t bother responding. My dick was hard enough to pound steel spikes, and thanks to the lights above, I doubted she could miss it.
“That goes for you, too,” she challenged Jinx. “How old are you, anyway?”
“He’s thirty-three.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Not as old, I guess.”
Her gaze swung to my face. “So, do you, like, have gray hair down there? That’s okay if you do. I’ll keep my eyes closed when your dick is in my mouth.”
I groaned. She was killing me.
My phone chimed. The screen lit up where it rested on my leg.
— Jesus fuck. I’m in love with her.
As though she’d read Jinx’s message, she chuckled, and the melodic sound made my balls ache.
“Don’t worry, I won’t throw myself at you, Rule. Just know … it’s something we can discuss when you’re ready.”
I grunted as I got to my feet. “We’ll be out most of the night,” I informed her as I walked toward the house. “Good night, Laikyn.”
“Good night, Rule.”
Jinx got to his feet a moment later.
“Good night, Jinx.”
Before we reached the door to the house, she tacked on, “I’ll fantasize about both of you when I’m playing with myself later.”
“Don’t say a fucking word,” I growled to Jinx before stomping through the house.
Half an hour later, I strolled into my office to find Rhyan and Red Wally standing in front of the television. It was late for most people, but our line of work didn’t conform to the nine-to-five rules.
“It happened,” Rhyan announced.
I turned to the big screen in time to see the scene shift from a reporter in the newsroom to one standing in front of a mansion, spotlit and surrounded by camera crews all standing around to get the top story of the night.
“Thanks, John,” the man on the screen said. “I’m standing outside the home of award-winning director Lawrence Pierce and his wife, Melati. Their bodies were found earlier this evening when one of Mr. Pierce’s assistants stopped by to check on them. According to police, it appears to be a murder-suicide. They believe Mrs. Pierce overdosed shortly after she stabbed her husband in the chest. It’s unclear whether the couple was having issues, but the police have assured us the investigation is active.”
“Any mention of Monica?” I asked Rhyan.
“No, but they’ll backtrace the steps, and when they do…”
“She’s an actress,” I told Rhyan. “She knows how to play her part.”
The only issue we might encounter would be the timeline. Once the police determined the time of death, there was a chance Monica would still look suspicious since it had taken a couple of hours to get everything in order.
“You trust her?” Rhyan asked.
“Not as far as I can throw her,” I admitted. “But she’ll do what needs to be done to protect her own ass.”
She always did.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and read the text message from Jinx, foolishly thinking his question was about work.
— Will you be taking any time off for your honeymoon?
“Fuck off,” I told him in response.
His smile earned him a middle finger.
“We have a job, boss?” Rhyan asked, clearly amused by my response to Jinx.
“No.”
“You just come in for the view?”
“Something like that.”
“How’s the little wife?”
“You can fuck off, too,” I told her, then closed my office door, shutting them both out, along with my wandering thoughts of Laikyn Quinn.