Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (9 page)

“Shhhhh,” he nurtures me. “You did well, Julia. You did so very well.”

It’s the last thing I hear before blissful sleep takes over.

~~~

The smell of lemon pepper awakens me from my slumber. For a moment I think I’m still in the blindfold and he’s holding a lemon, but I realize I can see. Reaching out for Mark, I’m disappointed to find I’m still on top of the bed naked, and incredibly sore, but he is nowhere near. The nightstand has been cleaned and the door to the connected bathroom has been left open with the light on. It’s still evening outside, but it feels like I’ve slept for days.

Swinging my legs off the bed, I ache from my midsection all the way up my spine. But it’s a good ache. I smile as I hobble to the bathroom and fix myself up, putting on my clothes and using the new brushes, combs and face cloths available. Reset and a little rested, I make my way through the cavernous apartment following the delicious smell until I arrive in Mark’s kitchen.

“Handsome, sexy and he can cook. Forget Bruce Wayne. You’re the most eligible bachelor in New York.”

“Yes, but Bruce does have a nicer car, and a cool butler,” Mark smiles in a self-deprecating way that is nothing short of adorable. I want to run and hug him right now, but I’m not sure of all the rules of this “submission” and decide to wait for him. He just keeps turning the salmon on the grill and tossing the salad.

“Thank you for the well-stocked powder room, by the way,” I say coyly. “You might not have a cool butler but some lady takes care of your bedroom quite well.”

“Wrong on both counts, my dear. You should stick to editing. Intuition and investigation clearly don’t suit you.”

“Oh really?”

“Since Lucy Conway got married, I contracted a wonderful ‘gentleman’s gentleman’ to do the cleaning and that is not my bedroom. That’s my playroom.”

“Well I must say, Mr. Stone, I do enjoy the game.” I give him the most dazzling flirtatious grin I have and it works. He looks up from the grill and winks at me then walks over to give me a kiss.

“Salmon and salad in fifteen. Would you like more of the Riesling or want to switch to something different?”

“You choose,” I say with open arms and an open heart. I can tell by his body language he likes that answer a lot.

We sit down to dinner at a small table in the kitchenette, although I can see a much larger ornate dining room through another door. The food is delicious and the company charming. For a few moments, I almost forget what I’m doing here in the first place.

“Where did you learn to cook like this?” I ask hoping he doesn’t find that too intrusive.

“My mom, actually. As you’ve previously pointed out, I am the second son. So Dad spent most of his time focusing on Blake, and mom spent her time with me. She taught me how to cook, sew, read poetry and listen. While my father taught my brother how to rule the world, mom taught me how to thrive in it. I think I turned out the better man.”

“On that point, Mr. Stone,” I raise my glass in a mock toast, “I absolutely agree. Speaking of which, what was it you needed to tell me?”

Mark takes a deep breath and both of us know that question has changed the entire night. I regret asking it, and yet I need to know.

“Venture capital is a risky business. I know you think all of this was handed to me on a silver platter with a love note from my parents, but the truth is my father left us a company and not much else. The money I have is the money I’ve made. Some of it comes from Sandstone Ventures and the rest comes from investments and personal ventures. But, it’s important to know that my father left us with some very sketchy accounts and we’ve both worked our way to where we are.”

“Okay, so you and Blake aren’t trust fund babies. Your point being?” I want to kick myself for being so forward but Mark wants to stroll down memory lane and I simply want to know how I’m getting Lynx back.

“We both went to NYU. We both studied business and finance. Blake was two years ahead of me, so I had the advantage of seeing a lot his books and coursework for classes I ended up taking later. We weren’t any closer then than we are now, but we pretended better and helped each other more. One day a professor asked to see me after class. When I got to his office, he told me I needed to do better and he was surprised I was so much worse than Blake.

“I asked him from clarification. I mean, Blake is not an academic or even a good spreadsheet reader. But, he sure knows his way around the fine print. Anyway, he pulled out a paper Blake had turned in years before and showed it to me because he had been using it as a class model. Blake didn’t write that paper. He cheated. I found out later he had paid someone to write most of his work. So, he got better grades than I did—which made my father trust Blake with a larger share of the company, even though we are both co-presidents. But, I just bit my tongue. Because I knew he cheated, and I knew someday the company would be rightfully mine.”

At this point we had finished with dinner and he walked me over to the couch, refreshing our drinks. I want to speed him up but can’t find the words to ask him to get to the point of this story. I try to prod him along.

“So, what you’ve discovered to help my case is that Blake has always been a lying dickhead?”

“No, Julia,” Mark says with a heavy voice. “I discovered Blake is cheating again. Only this time the stakes are much higher for everyone.”

“Cheating? What do you mean?”

“I’m doing pretty well,” Mark said as he gestured around the lush apartment. “But most of the money I’ve made happened before the economy melted down. I’ve managed to put some of Sandstone Ventures money into good projects, and I’ve kept my investments in low risk stocks until we rebound so I didn’t lose much. But I haven’t made a fortune these last four years—particularly the last two. No one has. Well, no one except one person.”

“Who?”

“Blake. He has increased his tax margin, added a new boathouse to his upstate property and rented an apartment near the park for ‘over-nights’ when he claims he is stuck in the city. He purchased a bunch of high risk stocks and is making big bets on odd things. He’s flush with cash and playing high stakes at a time when the rest of us are holding our cards tight.”

“So you think Blake is involved in investment fraud?”

“I think Blake is embezzling money from Sandstone Ventures and taking funds from the base accounts we use for acquisitions and mergers. It’s the money we’re supposed to use to make money. I think he is gutting our company, and what’s worse, I suspect he is using Lynx to do it.”

“What? Lynx? My Lynx?” I see red the minute Mark suggests it. “He’s using my magazine to fuck his own company over and fired me to do it?”

“It appears there’s some connection between Lynx and the base accounts at Sandstone. I’m not sure what it is yet. I need to do more research and I need some information from the inside. Not just inside Lynx, but inside my own company as well.”

“It’s your company, Mark. How hard can that be?”

“Plenty. Kenneth Allen is into this up to his neck too and I suspect there is a third party involved although I’m not willing to disclose that at this time. So any searching I do needs to be discrete and that takes time. I’m going to need someone at Lynx to do some digging for me.”

“What are you talking about? We don’t need any time. We need to go to the police. Tonight. Blake can be arrested by tomorrow and I’ll be back in my office by the beginning of next week.” I stand up from the couch and walk to the kitchen counter to set my wine glass and grab my purse. Mark just stares at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“Julia, sit back down.”

“No! I will not sit down. This is it, Mark! This is what we’ve waited for. Blake is breaking the law and that’s a matter for the police. Let’s just file charges and get this ball rolling. We don’t need to do all this sneaking around. Get the cops involved and let’s get it on the road.”

“It’s not possible. We do need to do the sneaking around and we do need to protect both companies while we’re doing it.”

“Look. You’re an investor. I’m an editor. Neither one of us are equipped for this kind of thing.” I try to use my best rational argument but I’m also so buzzed by the idea of seeing that fucker put in cuffs for screwing up my company I can’t sit still. “Cops are trained to do this stuff. So you do the investing, I’ll do the editing and we will let the cops do the copping!”

I turn into a hot-headed manic bulldozer. I’m pacing around his apartment trying to figure out which police station we need to go to, rambling at about ninety miles an hour about all the ways Blake can get arrested and everything we need to do. Suddenly Mark stands up.

“Julia, stop!”

“What?”

“Just stop. Sit down.”

“I’m too excited to sit down, Mark. Let’s go now!”

Mark’s voice takes on the same tone he saves for the moments he is instructing me sexually—clear, severe and commanding.

“I said sit down.”

I plop on the couch with a thud, the memory of his strong passion aching in my womb.

“Look,” he says as he takes a turn pacing around. “First, I don’t have any evidence Blake is cheating, just a gut feeling and some unusual accounting. Second, I don’t have anything tying Blake’s ill-gotten income to Lynx. Because he had to have gotten to that money before he fired you, there’s too much for it to have happened since you were let go. But I don’t know how he’s using Lynx. I just know he must be. Third, no evidence and no explanation means no arrest, and it will tip our hand to him that we are on to it. So, no police.”

“But they can investigate and figure out what you don’t know which frankly, is a lot.”

Mark gives me a thin-lipped grin through the comment as if he is enduring my scrutiny purely for altruistic reasons and he could turn me over and out at any time.

“You have twenty-four days left for the rejoinder. Do you know how long an investigation into financial crimes takes? Two to three years.”

“Then why did you bother telling me this if it won’t help?” I hope that doesn’t sound like mistrust, but I’m so frustrated to think that that asshole is using my Lynx to make himself richer.

“Because I’m going to need your help getting inside and knowing what to look for, and I’m going to need you to trust me while I investigate this myself and get the proof that will help us walk Blake straight to his jail cell. I’d also like to not have to bail you out any more.”

“Okay,” I say as he sits next to me on the couch. I look into his beautiful dark eyes and want to melt into him again. “My assistant Janice is also my best friend. She’s still working there, and get this—she told me that Blake and Kenneth locked her out of all the financial systems. She says they’re pawing around my office pretending to look for resources for Valerie James from Ladies World. But they’re probably moving the money.”

“Moving it or hiding how they’ve been moving it,” Mark catches on. “Do you have a way of contacting Janice no matter what?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because I have some ideas about how we can find out. But, once this goes down, your friend Janice isn’t going to be safe anymore.”

“It’s a risk she’s willing to take,” I reply earnestly. I know Janice has my back.

“What about you? What are you willing to risk, Julia?”

Taking his hand, I place it on my inside thigh, look directly into his eyes again and kiss him fully, pulling my lips away in a long, drawn-out motion.

“Everything, Mark. I’ll risk everything.”

Mark squeezes my thigh making me wince and get wet for him all at the same time.

“Let’s see, Julia. Let’s see right now.”

Chapter 10

“We can catch our breath by the pool,” Mark says and he stands, offering me his hand.

“It’s a little late to head to the pool isn’t it? I mean, won’t they think it’s odd you’re swimming with the cleaning lady this late at night?”

“The pool is private. It’s an over-sized jacuzzi, actually–big enough for about twenty people and six feet deep so your legs can dangle as you sit on the ledge or use it for hydrotherapy. Besides, the view from this far up is amazing.”

We walk to the “pool room” and I am awed by the surroundings. Decorated like a Buddhist meditation room, the wooden planks lead to a huge pool-like jacuzzi, with deck chairs and small tables around it. The best feature by far is the wall which is actually a plate glass window giving an amazing view of the lights of the city.

I gasp, transfixed by the view.

He directs me to take my shoes off in the doorway to protect the decking, then walks over and climbs in a deck chair facing the city, pulling me onto the chair with him. He kisses me and plays with my hair.

“So, we’re agreed. No more talk of this unless I initiate it or we agree it’s a safe location?” he asks, his finger tracing my lips. I can understand why he needs assurance. I haven’t made the sanest choices lately.

“We agree.” I lean over and steal another long drawn out kiss from him.

“You better be a good girl. Or I might just have to spank you.”

“I’ll be good,” I promise him back, reaching down and rubbing his crotch. I feel his cock rising inside his pants and I love his response to my touch. Sliding down the chair, I get to my goal with the firm intent of pulling his zipper down with my teeth, only to discover they are buttons.

“Problem?” He looks amused as I stall one inch from his member.

“I was hoping to unzip you with my mouth, but these buttons require more talent than I have,” I confess. He laughs heartily and tussles my hair with one hand while undoing his buttons with the other, allowing me to slip his thick cock out in the open and cover it with my mouth.

He moans, leaning back to enjoy the sensation of my tongue flicking and licking his head. “You
are
a good girl.”

“If you’d care to disrobe a little further, I can make sure all my goodness shows.”

“You first.” I can’t believe I’m doing this but I rise and go to the corner of the room where a coat rack and towel holder are stationed and begin removing my clothes for the second time in one day. Mark also removes his clothes and returns to the chair erect and ready for me to continue.