Kentucky
Robert thought about sleeping in his office. Not on purpose, of course, or at least that’s what he would have told himself. His brain would have concocted some story about just needing to get the stack of contracts signed, returned and filed before the new year. Or he might have opened the bar, the bar he usually only used for clients, just so he could justify staying at work so he didn’t add to the already unsafe New Year’s Eve traffic.
But he hadn’t gotten the chance to do any of those things.
Just as he’d been staring at the decanter of vodka on top of the bar, he’d gotten a call from his neighborhood security.
“Hello,” he barked in a voice raspy from disuse.
“Hello, Mr. Shimizu. This is Ernest from the Hillcrest Community Security Force. We got word from your home security provider that there was a break-in at your house.”
“Okay.”
“So… we went and checked it out.”
“And?” Robert asked, getting annoyed.
“And we just wanted to tell you that we haven’t found any evidence of a break-in.”
Robert rolled his eyes. “Okay. Thanks. Goodbye.”
“Wait,” Ernest said. “It’s Hillcrest policy that when there aren’t any obvious signs of an intruder but there’s been an alarm notification, residents should double-check that all is well.”
“Okay. I’ll do that when I can.”
“Speedily,” Ernest added.
Robert sighed and rolled his eyes again. “Fine. I’m on my way.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Robert hung up the phone.
His eyes darted to the bar again and he shook his head. He stood from his desk, thought about shoving the remaining contracts into his bag but changed his mind. He’d go home, check his house and return to the office as soon as possible. And he practically chanted that to himself on the short drive home.
When he pulled into his driveway, there was a security guard standing at his front door. He smiled and waved at Robert, and then probably remembered what Robert did for a living before pulling up his utility belt and straightening his back.
Robert had to take a deep breath before he pushed his car door open.
His eyes darted up the façade of his house to his bedroom window and then away as quickly as possible. For the past two weeks, he’d done everything he could to be away from home as much as possible so he could avoid his bedroom. For six months his bed had been like a sanctuary to that one night with Cleo, but after Miami, it had become a place of mental torture.
All the images of the night after the Derby haunted him as they mingled with the way she’d looked down at him while riding his hand and that last look before she’d run away again. He could excuse the first time, neither of them had really known how it could be between them. But the second time… she’d known. She’d felt it. He knew that because he’d felt her feel it. Those few seconds before the fire alarm had gone off, he’d seen the look on her face and he’d known that she was about to say yes.
At least that was the lie he was able to tell himself when he stayed away from the bedroom where she’d ruined him for other women only to refuse to keep him, even when he’d begged her to do just that.
Robert slammed the car door behind him, took another deep breath and then forced his face into a smile. “Hello, Ernest, right?” he asked, because his foul mood wasn’t this man’s fault.
“Yes. Yes, sir. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, but protocol.”
“Of course,” Robert said.
The man followed Robert to his front door. Robert only hesitated for a second before he unlocked the door and pushed it open.
That tiny voice in his head that had screamed at him since the night he’d met Cleo had gone quiet since Miami. Sometimes he rejoiced in his newfound quiet, even as he’d mourned the loss. But when he stepped into his home, that voice sighed sadly; it had been hoping that maybe… It was wrong again. He’d been wrong about Cleo once again.
“Is everything okay?” Ernest asked. “Anything out of place?”
Robert looked around his large living and dining room. All his big expensive possessions were present and accounted for, and nothing looked out of place. If someone had broken in, he couldn’t see any signs of it, but he also found himself not caring, because it all looked wrong to him, because Cleo wasn’t here. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine,” he said, turning to the front door. He forced himself to smile.
Ernest seemed relieved. “You sure? You don’t want to check upstairs or the garage? I can come in and help.”
Robert shook his head. “That won’t be necessary.” But he did walk across the kitchen to check the garage so the man would leave him to grieve in peace.
He had to take a deep breath in and push it out loudly before he could open the door. Much like his bedroom, Robert had come to associate the garage with Cleo. She had stolen his Jag. But it wasn’t the memory of his favorite car that made him avoid his garage; it was the memory of Cleo’s wary eyes and soft voice saying, “Kiss me,” and the phantom feeling of her lips against his.
It didn’t make any sense. Cleo hadn’t spent more than a few hours here, and yet Robert felt as if every square inch of his home was haunted by her. And when he opened the garage, he thought at first that what he was seeing was just an extension of his mind’s refusal to let him forget her. But the longer he stared, the more he started to believe that this was real.
He stepped into his garage and put his hand on the hood of his car. It was just slightly warm.
“Everything okay?” Ernest called from the front door.
Robert turned back to his house. His entire body felt as if he’d been hit with a high volt of electricity as he shut his garage door and walked back through the kitchen.
“Yep. Yeah,” he said. His voice sounded strange. Too high. He didn’t care. “Everything’s great. Thank you for calling me and… doing your job so well.”
Ernest’s entire face lit up. “You’re welcome. If you notice anything, just give us a call.”
Robert nodded, already closing the front door. “Of course.”
“Have a good evening, and Happy New Year, Mr. Shimizu,” he said quickly.
“Happy New Year to you as well,” he replied, his heart racing.
He turned to look at his home anew. Everything was in its place as it had been before, but it all looked different, or at least Robert suddenly thought it did. His eyes darted left and right, looking for any sign of her. That sad voice in his head had returned and was practically chanting at him to find her now, now, now, and for once, he listened to it without hesitation.
He took the stairs two at a time. His eyes zeroed in on his closed bedroom door at the end of the hall and he ran toward it, not caring that it made him seem desperate; he was. He stopped just outside his bedroom, certain the door had been open when he’d left this morning, but once again unsure if his pathetic brain and heart were making this up.
His hand closed slowly around the doorknob and he pushed it down and pressed forward.
The door opened to his bed — a bed he hadn’t been able to sleep in since he’d returned from Miami — and there she was, sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed, completely naked, his father’s watch on her wrist.
“Finally. I didn’t have time to turn your air down. I’m cold as fuck,” Cleo said, a gorgeous mask of annoyance on her face.
Cleo tried to look confident even though her stomach was doing flips.
She’d had two weeks to plan this reunion since she’d left her sister fuming in Miami. She could have gone directly back to the Grand Palace and found Robert, but Cleo thought there was a chance he might have changed his mind about calling the police, so she headed back to Chicago to sweeten the deal.
She’d thought about off-loading his car. She could have gotten a lot of money for it, but each time she thought to call the chop shop she used to move her automobiles, she couldn’t do it. She’d never planned to sell the watch, especially not when she saw the name Calvin Shimizu engraved on the back. Clearly, it was his father’s, and it was a sentimental piece. She never thought about returning it though, because it was something that connected them; an intimate bond he didn’t know she’d cherished.
In Chicago, she’d stopped by her dad’s house, told him to take it easy on Alex if she seemed annoyed in the next few months, and hit up her contacts to have the car transported back to Kentucky. She’d waited an agonizing few days, staking out his gated community until his car had arrived. And then she’d broken into his house. Cleo had never robbed a house in reverse, and it sucked. She couldn’t imagine anything that was the exact opposite of the rush she was looking for.
But then Robert had pushed his bedroom door open and she changed her mind. Giving him back his possessions was okay. Staring down a foreseeable future where she didn’t lift some rich woman’s Gucci purse carelessly abandoned on the department store counter while she looked for another tacky purse to waste money on? Grim. But if it meant that Robert looked at her like this — wide eyes, heaving chest, slightly disheveled hair, beard full and lush like the softest seat she’d ever seen, his body coiled tight like he was about to pounce...that might be just the kind of incentive she’d need to adjust to getting out of the game and starting something new. With him.
“You just gonna stare at me?” she asked in a small whisper.
That got him moving. He stepped into the room with a stuttered step, as if he’d forgotten how to walk on two legs. Cleo couldn’t blame him, she looked fucking great. She’d practiced this pose in the mirror over the past week more than a few times in various hotel rooms across the Midwest. She’d felt awkward each time, but she’d also wanted this moment to be perfect. She wanted the first time Robert saw her after Miami and six months after the Derby to be memorable. And what was more memorable than her, butt ass naked except for his watch and a brand-new lavender wig that matched her fresh manicure?
Nothing.
“You’re here?” he said as he stalked around the bed.
“In the flesh,” she said, leaning back on her hands, following him with her eyes.
His eyes narrowed. “Why are you here?”
A lesser person’s face would have fallen at that not-quite-welcome response. But Cleo was used to awkwardness, so she took it in stride, even though her heart felt as if it was breaking. “I’ve got a proposition for you,” she said.
“No,” he spat before she could finish speaking and practically launched his body onto the bed, crawling on top of her.
“Don’t you want to hear—” she tried to ask, as he pushed her flat on her back.
“No,” he said again. He grabbed her wrists and extended them over her head, holding them in one hand.
When he moved his free hand to grip her throat, Cleo couldn’t help but exhale, her entire body going slack under his, relaxed.
But Robert only seemed to stiffen on top of her, his grip on her wrist and neck tightening and his dick hardening in his pants. Cleo spread her legs so that bulge could settle against her core where it belonged.
“Why are you here?” he whispered again.
Cleo rolled her eyes. “I was trying to tell you.”
He unconsciously thrust his hips, and she purred at the friction of his groin grinding into her bare pussy. She felt the rage rolling off of him and into her in waves and it made her smile.
“Don’t smile,” he barked, thrusting with each word.
Cleo moved her head forward and licked his lips. “No.”
“Why are you here?” he asked again.
“Don’t you want me here?” she asked, arching her back to rub her breasts against his chest.
“You left me.” Robert’s voice broke and his eyes looked so sad and tired. Cleo’s smile faltered.
“Can I trust you?” she asked.
He scoffed. “Can you trust me?”
It wasn’t a real question, but she treated it as such. “Yes. Can I trust you not to call the police?”
“Yes,” he said immediately.
“I don’t care what you do to me, but my crew…” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “I had to protect my sister.”
“Your…? You work with your sister?” His hands loosened and he lifted from her body. The cool air of the bedroom covered her chest and she missed the warmth of him.
Even just thinking about Alex made her eyes water, but she shook her head, wanting to change the subject. “Worked,” she corrected, lowering her eyelashes — her real ones this time, she hadn’t wanted to risk this man ruining another pair of her favorite real mink wispies.
He squinted down at her.
“I retired.”
She felt his grip on her tighten again. “When?” His voice was hoarse with barely contained emotion.
Cleo relaxed in his hold, finally feeling the ice between them begin to really thaw. “Two weeks ago.”
“Miami?” he asked in desperation.
“Miami,” she confirmed.
“What now?” he asked, his head unconsciously dipping, his mouth getting closer to hers.
Cleo smiled and shrugged while she wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her ankles behind his ass. “I could do so many things now.”
“Like what?”
She licked her lips and shimmied, shamelessly rubbing her naked body against his soft wool suit.
“Like what, Cleo?” he repeated, his voice a deep sonorous whisper so full of possibility it made her core clench.
“I heard you were looking for a consultant.”
“I’m not.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You’re not?”
He shook his head. “A consultant is temporary. I need something more permanent.” He dipped his head, nuzzling her jaw with his nose.
“Yeah?”
“Yes, Cleo,” he whispered against her lips as his head moved to the other side of her jaw to repeat the nuzzling there. He was teasing her and she wasn’t mad at it.
She bit her bottom lip, pretending to consider his words. “I think that can be arranged,” she moaned.
His head lifted. His eyes danced with mirth for a brief moment before they deadened. “How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you won’t just leave again?”
She hadn’t known what to expect of this reunion, but she’d been prepared for this question. Cleo turned her head to look at his watch on her left wrist. “I’ve never returned anything I’ve stolen before. Never got caught.” She turned to him with wide eyes. “I’m not ashamed of what I do. What I did. But it didn’t make me as happy as it used to. It never made me feel as much as you did in that car and this room.” She lifted her head from the bed toward him and he lowered to meet her halfway. “Ask me to stay,” she whispered against his lips.
“Will you stay with me?”
“Yes,” she said, and he pressed his mouth to hers in a brief but hard kiss.
“Now, ask me the other thing,” she said, and snapped his mouth between her teeth gently.
He kissed her first. He flattened his body against her, ground his dick against her pussy, tightened his fingers around her throat. “How do you want to be punished?”
Cleo had never shivered harder in her life. “I don’t stay where I’m not wanted. I want you to make me stay. Make me want to stay.”
“Have you ever stayed put before?”
Cleo smiled, loving how clearly he could already see her. “Never,” she whispered.
“Neither have I,” he said, his hips pumping against her.
She smiled and moaned low in her throat, digging her heels into his ass trying to get him closer, inside her. He moved his hand from the front of her neck, down her chest. He palmed her right breast and then strummed her nipple with his thumb.
Her head felt back to the bed and she sighed.
“Stay with me,” he mumbled against her cheek, not as a request or a command, but almost like a prayer.
Cleo smiled, snuggling into his beard.
“Do you like that?” he asked, rubbing his beard across her skin.
She moaned.
He stopped moving, his face buried in her neck, but without the hot friction of his hair against her skin.
She frowned. “Don’t stop.”
He didn’t answer.
Cleo was getting frustrated, but then she felt the soft press of his lips against her shoulder. She could feel his smile.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mr. Shimizu. I love the way your beard feels against my skin, Mr. Shimizu. Please don’t stop, Mr. Shimizu,” she trilled, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath.
“Good girl,” he whispered into her ear, shaking with laughter. “Now I know how to punish you.”
“Wait. Hold up. How?”
He didn’t listen. Cleo started squirming underneath him as he scraped his beard over her naked body, sometimes softly, sometimes so hard it almost hurt. When he rubbed his beard over her nipples, the scratching of his hair was interspersed with flicks of his tongue and the scraping of his teeth.
“Oh fuck,” she groaned.
He lifted from her body and she arched her back, wanting his touch back, even when it hurt.
“Keep your hands above your head,” he growled.
She nodded excitedly. “Yes, sir. Now get to work.”
Robert shook his head while he rolled his eyes. But instead of getting down to business on her body, he sat back on his haunches and began to take his tie off.
“Motherfucker,” she hissed.
“I told you to speak nicely to me and I’d give you whatever you want.”
“I was nice! I’m butt ass naked! How much nicer do I need to be?”
He’d started unbuttoning his shirt while she whined. Cleo thought that the more unhinged she felt as her lust grew, the calmer Robert looked. And it might have been frustrating in the moment, but actually, it was sexy as fuck.
“Please,” she moaned.
“That’s better,” Robert said as he ripped his belt open and fished his dick from his pants.
Cleo spread her legs wider and smiled. “I missed you,” she whispered to his dick.
“Ridiculous,” Robert said, and then he fisted his dick and began to jack himself off on top of her.
Cleo’s mouth fell open on a gasp. “You better fucking not,” she screamed.
Robert grunted and his dick jerked in his hand. She was so beautiful angry. And haughty. And scared. And annoyed. Cleo was perfect. “Do not move your hands,” he told her.
He let go of his dick briefly to stick two fingers into her pussy. They both groaned. She was even wetter and warmer than he remembered. He pumped his fingers into her and moved the thumb from his other hand to circle her clit.
Cleo planted her feet on the bed and jutted her hips up to him, begging him to fill her, touch her, taste her. And he would. Robert had six months of fantasies to play out with Cleo and he was certain she had a few of her own. He doubted they’d leave this room for a good long while. He couldn’t think of a better way to ring in the new year than in this bed, working Cleo over with everything he had and doing exactly as she’d asked; giving her more than a few reasons to stay.
She was close. Her thighs shook with her coming orgasm and the effort to keep her hips raised. He bent over and took a greedy lick of her clit. She cried out and then shuddered when he slapped her wet clit lightly with the pads of his fingers.
“Yes,” she breathed.
And then he stopped.
Her ass fell to the bed. “Nooo,” she whined, looking down at him.
He grabbed his dick again with the hand wet from her pussy and started masturbating again.
“Bitch,” she hissed.
“Is that nice?”
“It’s as nice as you’re going to get.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Is it?” he asked, gripping the head of his dick with his other hand and squeezing as he stroked his length.
Cleo licked her lips and then pressed her thighs together. Robert watched as the ghost of an orgasm ran through her. She shivered, her eyes closed as a soft moan escaped her lips. “Please,” she whispered in the sweetest moan of desperation.
Robert grunted, his control practically disintegrated. He pushed Cleo’s knees apart and then pushed into her with a single press of his hips. He didn’t give her time to adjust to the intrusion and he felt certain that if he’d tried, she might have resorted to violence.
Instead, he grabbed her hips and pulled her up to the perfect angle to pump into her as deep as possible, as hard as possible.
He fucked her with six months of pent-up lust and frustration and she fucked him back with the same. He looked down at her body — her breasts swaying with the force of their bodies moving, her mouth open on a perpetual moan and, best of all, her hands clutched together above her head — not wanting to disobey him.
“You’re perfect,” he panted.
“I know. Now please,” she begged, fucking him back.
His mouth watered at the hard points of her nipples. He let her back down to the bed and moved his hands across her stomach and up her ribs. He tickled the undersides of her breasts softly before grabbing them and squeezing, just hard enough that she would feel the bite.
Her muscles locked. Her thighs held him. Her pussy clenched and she came in a wet gush so strong, she pushed his dick out of her pussy.
“Please,” she ground out.
He shoved his dick back inside her and began to fuck her again, fucking her just as fast and just as hard. She was bucking underneath him so he covered her body with his own trying to hold her down. He moved his face back to her breasts and began to suckle and bite at her nipples while using his beard to drive her wild. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. Robert had never heard a sound so perfect.
She was close again, he could feel it, but he didn’t let up on her. He sucked her nipple into his mouth and caressed it with his tongue before biting lightly. She shuddered and came, and he fucked her through that release and then another. And another.
By the time he covered her body fully with his, fucking her into the mattress, he was gritting his teeth trying to keep his orgasm at bay.
“Stay,” he grunted.
“Come,” she replied.
And so he did.
His hips jerked as he emptied inside her. His lips met hers and he groaned his relief into her mouth. She met each press of his body against hers happily.
When he was spent, he collapsed onto her and she wrapped her legs and arms around him.
“You didn’t ask me if you could come,” he mumbled against her lips, unwilling to stop kissing her after so long apart.
“You said I could steal from you if I needed the thrill,” she laughed.
Robert wrapped his arms around her body and held her tight. “I meant my money or my cars.”
She shrugged in his hold. “Been there. Done that,” she said, shaking with laughter.
Robert watched her, tears falling from her eyes as she laughed at her own joke. He heard the faint sound of fireworks in the distance and he smiled. He dipped his head and brushed his lips over the rounded tip of her nose, and then across the high points of each cheekbone. He kissed the corner of her mouth and then her lips. “I wonder if you’ll be laughing when I’m rubbing my beard all over your pussy. No fingers, no dick, no tongue,” he said, the threat delivered in his most gentle voice.
Cleo’s face sobered and she opened her eyes to look up at him. “Yes, please, Mr. Shimizu,” she whispered.
He smiled at her and lifted back onto his knees.
Her hands went over her head again, fisting the comforter beneath her. He kissed his way down her body, his eyes trained on hers as she watched him descend. Robert pressed a soft kiss against her engorged clit. She jumped.
His tongue was out and he was ready to taste her when she stopped him with an arched eyebrow.
“Your security is terrible. You didn’t even change your garage opener.”
“I wanted you to come back,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry I stole your father’s watch.”
“It’s just a thing. So is the car. I wanted you to come back. Just you,” he said, and lowered his mouth to her sex, set on making sure she knew that he didn’t just want her here, he needed her.