Infatuation - A Club Destiny Novel (30 page)

“
Where are you going?” Tag
growled.

“
Anywhere but
here.”

“
You can’t just leave,” he
argued, but he didn’t sound very convincing.

“
The hell I can’t. I don’t
need to wait around while you try to come up with some bullshit
reason to push me away. You can twist it however you want, but it
doesn’t change a damn thing.” McKenna was doing her damnedest to
rein in her temper, to not let him see how angry she was at what he
was doing.

“
There’s nothing to
twist.”

“
The hell there’s not. You
feel something, damn it. I don’t care if you’re too stubborn to
admit it or not. You feel it just like I do,” she
yelled.

“
That’s where you’re
wrong.” Tag’s tone cooled significantly, and McKenna braced herself
for the impact of what would come next. “It’s about sex, darlin’.
That’s all it has ever been about.”

She couldn’t have steeled
herself for that if she wanted to. His words stung, but more
importantly, they pissed her off.

Taking a deep breath, she
swallowed the pain and anger as best she could, “Thanks for the
tour, Tag. Don’t worry, I know the terms of our agreement. I’ll
make sure I get Luke’s blessing before I write my final article,”
she said through clenched teeth. “
If
I write anything at
all.”

With that, she calmly
opened the door and gently shut it behind her, resisting the urge
to slam it, and fighting the tears that threatened to
fall.

Stupid tears.

By the time McKenna got
home, she was over the hurt, and she was on her way to a good
pissed off. During the cab ride home, she had plenty of time to
think. Maybe not plan like she wanted, but more than enough time to
realize exactly where she had gone wrong.

Once inside her house,
McKenna dropped her purse on the table in the foyer and put her
laptop down on the kitchen counter before venturing to the cabinet
where she retrieved a wine glass.

If she wasn’t so worried
about doing something incredibly stupid, she would bust out the
vodka. But, she knew better than to immerse herself in hard liquor
when it came to drowning her sorrow. Instead, she would settle on a
glass of her favorite red and a phone call to the one woman who
would know how to make it all better.

“
McKenna?” Whisper greeted
when she answered the phone. “Is everything all right?”

“
No.” That was the only
answer she had for that question. No, everything was not all right.
Nor was she sure it ever would be again.

“
Where are
you?”

“
At home,” McKenna
answered reluctantly.

“
I’m coming over. Don’t
move a muscle until I get there,” Whisper said quickly.

“
Wait.” That wasn’t why
McKenna had called. She didn’t want to pull Whisper away from
whatever she was doing.

“
Nope, no waiting. I’m on
my way.”

The phone disconnected,
and McKenna stared down at the screen that showed her the call had,
in fact, ended.

True to her word, ten
minutes later, Whisper was banging on the front door, and McKenna
was running to answer it. The second she opened it, her friend
walked right in bearing gifts in the form of two more bottles of
wine. McKenna grinned. Leave it to Whisper to make sure she was
taken care of.

“
Where’s Anna?” McKenna
asked as she trailed behind Whisper on the way to the
kitchen.

“
She’s... out.” Whisper’s
curt answer was her way of saying she didn’t want to talk about
it.

Without asking, which
McKenna totally expected, Whisper pulled out another wine glass,
filled it full and then refilled McKenna’s before hopping up onto
the center island counter and turning the full brunt of her
attention on McKenna.

“
I want every last detail,
and if you leave anything out, I’ll know.”

McKenna smiled. She couldn’t help
herself.

Pulling out one of the bar stools, she
plopped down and proceeded to tell Whisper – minus a few minor
details – exactly what had happened over the last week. By the time
she was finished, Whisper was staring back at her with her mouth
hanging open.

“
What?”

“
You fell for him.” It
wasn’t a question, and McKenna knew she didn’t need to answer
either.

It was
that
obvious.

But she lied anyway. “I did not fall for
him.”

“
Bullshit. You went off
and fell in love with dreamy lawyer man. What were you thinking?”
Whisper was laughing, but that didn’t make McKenna feel any
better.

What
had
she been thinking?

“
It’s not like that,”
McKenna stated firmly, pushing her empty wine glass toward her
friend so she could refill it.

“
It
is
so
like
that.”

“
No, it’s not. It’s just a
job.”

That got Whisper to laughing so hard,
McKenna thought she might just fall off the countertop.

“
Honey, sex is never a job
for you. No matter how you try to spin it or what you tell
yourself.”

Ok, so maybe that was true. McKenna had
experience; she’d even done some crazy shit in her lifetime, but
no, when it came to sex, she didn’t do it casually. Ever.

Which is why she was so
surprised she had gone and given in to Tag. Ok and maybe surprised
wasn’t the right word for it either. From the moment she laid eyes
on the sexy, laid back lawyer, McKenna had wanted him with a
ferocity that she didn’t even recognize.

Ever since the rat bastard who broke her
heart sixteen months earlier, she had sworn off men. But she could
pretend with the best of them. Her readers thought she was worldly
when it came to sex, except she knew better. Sure, she knew what
she wanted, and she had lived out some of those fantasies with Tag
because her stupid, naive heart convinced her much more cautious
brain that it was ok.

It was definitely
not
ok.

“
He’s scared.” Whisper’s
words broke through her thoughts and pulled her back to the
present.

“
Nothing scares that man,”
she explained to her friend. “He got what he wanted, and he must’ve
realized I was falling too fast which he likely knew would
happen.”

“
You give him way too much
credit,” Whisper commented as she refilled her own glass. “He’s
only human and honey, there ain’t no man – or woman for that matter
– who wouldn’t fall for you if given half a chance.”

It was McKenna’s turn to laugh. “They’re
just curious to find out whether those pictures were airbrushed or
not.”

When she looked up at Whisper, she noticed
her friend was no longer smiling. Preparing herself for the tongue
lashing she was about to receive, McKenna focused on her wine
glass, turning it slowly on the granite countertop.

“
Boss lady, I don’t know
what happened to you, but I can assure you, when the world looks
your way, they don’t see the mistakes of that young, naive eighteen
year old girl. Hell, that was so long ago I doubt anyone even
remembers it.”

Right.
McKenna knew people remembered because she received emails
day in and day out from men asking whether she was going to bare
all in her magazine any time soon.

They remembered.

“
Dreamy lawyer man is not
like that,” Whisper added.

“
He is so like that. His
life revolves around sex. From the toys in his private room to the
raunchy club he’s a member of, Tag lives and breathes
sex.”

When McKenna looked up, Whisper was looking
at her skeptically.

“
You need to talk to
him.”

McKenna broke eye contact and went back to
twirling her glass. “I’m done talking. I’m done trying to help. He
made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t need, nor does he want my
help.”

“
He might not, but the
McCoy’s do,” Whisper argued. “They trust you, Mac. They’ve proven
that. And you’d be smart not to let them or yourself down by
letting one man’s insecurities drag you down.”

McKenna didn’t believe Tag
had a single insecure bone in his entire body. He exuded confidence
and self-assurance to the point she could practically taste it when
she was around him. And truth be told, she had tried to inhale it
at every opportunity, hoping, like hell, he could infuse her with
just a fraction of his hard won control.

She failed.

“
So, what’s next? Do we
write an article to counter Stephen’s and Susan’s threat? Or do we
sit back and let Samantha McCoy take a beating for being the woman
she wants to be?”

McKenna didn’t like the
idea of anyone hurting Samantha. Or any one of the people she had
come to know over the last week. She didn’t want to turn her back
on them, even if she risked having her heart smashed and smeared.
She wasn’t that woman. She was stronger than that.

Glancing back up at Whisper, she smiled for
the first time in the last couple of hours.

“
No, I’m not going to let
her take the fall. But, I’m going to need your help.”

Whisper clapped her hands like a little
girl, grinning from ear to ear. “Gladly.”

*** ~~ *** ~~ *** ~~ ***

Tag was an asshole. A
stubborn asshole at that.

He knew it, and now
McKenna knew it too.

Two incredibly long weeks
had crawled by, and Tag hadn’t heard from her at all. Not that he
had tried to contact her either. Because, well... because he’s a
jackass.

The worst part about it
all was that he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Day, night, it
didn’t matter. She constantly plagued his thoughts. On top of that,
she was working diligently to help Sam and Logan out of the current
situation they were in, although no one seemed to be making any
headway.

Everyone was moving
stoically forward while Tag felt like he was just sitting still. He
had frequent meetings with both Sam and Logan, yet neither of them
mentioned McKenna at all. He knew they were talking to her because
he read the articles that came out each day. In fact, that was the
first thing he did every morning. With a cup of coffee and his
tablet computer, he sat at his kitchen table and consumed his
caffeine almost as quickly as he consumed whatever she
wrote.

It was making him fucking crazy.

And still he had no intentions of doing
anything about it.

What the hell could he do?
Grovel? Plead? Beg? Sure, maybe. But that wasn’t in his nature. And
he absolutely refused to turn into his father. He would never let
any one woman own him to the point he didn’t care about even
himself anymore. That was probably his biggest fear of
all.

After Tag had James return
all of McKenna’s personal things she had left with her abrupt
departure, he hadn’t even returned to his private room at the club.
Nor had he gone to the club.

His life now revolved
around work, trying to figure out a way to get Sam and Logan out of
this mess without taking everyone else down with them. Thankfully,
Stephen Crawford appeared to have gone into hiding. They weren’t
that lucky as far as Susan went. The woman was at it each and every
day, talking foolish nonsense to whoever would listen to her, yet
not a single name or even a hint of a picture had been
mentioned.

As Tag sat at the table
now, powering up his tablet, he waited patiently to see what
McKenna had been up to the day before. He knew the articles she
published would share as much insight as he was going to get as to
what was going on in her life, and he had settled on at least
knowing she was ok.

With a couple of touches
to the screen, he pulled up her magazine’s website and scrolled to
the last post which had been at nine o’clock the previous night.
Glancing at his watch, he noticed it was already eight.

When I Say No, That’s What I Mean

Dear Mr. Stephen Crawford,

I debated for days on how I should address
your insistent, constant requests and last night, it finally came
to me. A public apology seemed to be in order. So, I’m writing this
for you – and the rest of my readers – because I felt it was
critically important to ensure you received the message.

First of all, I appreciate
your daily emails, and yes, I read each and every one. Including
those that don’t contain your signature. You know the ones that are
a little harsh – the belligerent threats to my safety and the
safety of my staff.

Yes, those are the ones.

Glad you remember.

So, here, for everyone to
see, I want to make a public apology because apparently I have not
made myself clear. No, I am not interested in sharing any
information about you with my readers. No, I am not interested in
helping you manipulate my friends or those I care about. No, I am
not interested in... Insert all of those cruel, nasty comments you
made here.

I am just
not interested
. And I
want to apologize if in any way, my repeated use of the words “No”,
“No thank you”, “Absolutely not”, and “Please do not send any more
requests”, weren’t clear enough for you to understand.