Wrong (38 page)

chapter sixteen

Abram wasn’t in his bed when I awoke in it the next morning.  But when I ambled downstairs, one of his handlers directed me to the kitchen, where I saw a buffet of poached eggs, smoked salmon and capers.  Next to it, a platter of croissants, berries and crème fraiche.  I wanted to take a picture of it all and send it to Rhode, but then I remembered that Abram didn’t fraternize with employees.  Whatever he and I were doing, it was probably to remain a secret.

So I had one serving each of savory and sweet and took the elevator down to my suite, prepared to apologize to Rhode for disappearing yesterday.  But I wound up finding her on the linen sectional, entwined with a model-looking guy wearing just a pair of briefs.  I held in a laugh as she popped up to bring me into the kitchen, giggling through her explanation of who he was – an Italian underwear model who won her heart at XIII last night, despite being a terrible dancer and speaking no words of English.  Clearly, crazier things happened around here than a girl bailing on her roommate for a day.

“So what did you do yesterday, bub?” Rhode asked as she made us coffee.  I bit my lip as I sat there watching her. 
Oh… nothing.  Nearly had sex with Abram Lenox in a public restroom but we ended up waiting till the car and he blew my fucking mind and now I’m wondering if I ever actually had a real orgasm until last night.
  I groaned inwardly.  I wanted so badly to spill but I knew I shouldn’t so instead, I shrugged and said, “You know.  Just errands.”

“Nice.  I’m like, never productive,” Rhode laughed, leaving the Italian in our living room as she sat with me at the marble kitchen counter.  “I actually meant to get my nails redone for fight night but nope.”

“Is that tonight?”

“Mm-hm, and we are gonna make
bank
, girl.  Plus, Abram Sexpants Lenox will be in attendance, which is crazy because his sexy ass is so MIA these days.  He used to come around a lot more but not so much in the last like, four months.”

Four months
.  I’d met him in the alley barely any time ago.  Clearly, whatever he planned had in fact been in motion for longer.  I couldn’t help wondering what it was.  Somehow, the more time I spent with Abram, the harder I could imagine him doing anything vicious.  He could’ve done much worse to Evan last night but he hadn’t.  He only hurt Nate because Nate had threatened me.  But of course, I couldn’t discount the man in the alley – the gash splitting his head, pouring his blood.  As Rhode and I sat talking, absently playing on our phones, I typed dozens of words into Google that I only deleted before hitting search.

Abram Lenox crime

Abram Lenox Toro Family

Abram Lenox murder

Suddenly, I didn’t want to know.

~

There were different uniforms on fight nights.  It was my first fight night so I let Rhode give me the full rundown as she curled my hair in the women’s clubhouse.  It was a luxury locker room of sorts, built from polished wood and glass with no shortage of backlit mirrors.  The other girls got ready around us, all of us handing lipsticks and eyeliners and hairspray back and forth in a constant exchange.

I cocked my head as Rhode brushed out my curls.  “Honestly, how much worse can these uniforms get from our normal dresses?” Our daily uniform was actually classy enough with long sleeves and a lace overlay to cover the plunging sweetheart neckline, but it was also insanely short.  I didn’t think it could get much more scandalous but Rhode and one of the other girls flashed me twin looks.

“Girl,” they both said, leaving it at that.

I didn’t understand till the woman from dry cleaning came to drop them off.  After letting Rhode help me stuff all my curves into its skintight fabric, I spent five minutes standing in front of the mirror with her, just gaping at my own reflection.

“I know,” she said.  “It’s ridiculous.  But doesn’t it make you feel like a fucking sex goddess?”

“I think… yes, it does,” I murmured quietly, excitement building in my bones.  The racerback crop top was black leather with tantalizing, triangle slits just below the bust.  The stretchy black pencil skirt, with two panels of black mesh down the sides, ended just above my knees, hugging my hips as if holding on for dear life.  It might’ve been the first time I looked at myself and got turned on by what I saw.

“I’m gonna fuck the Italian so hard in this tonight,” Rhode murmured as she gazed at her side view.

Or maybe it was that that was turning me on.  The idea of looking
this
fucking good for your man.  Not that Abram was my man.  I didn’t know what he was.  In any other world, the time frame in which we’d known each other would still put us as strangers.  But the universe had rewritten that rule when pairing us.  Our connection was often wordless and it grew in barely any time at all, rooted mostly in horrible things.  Nate’s rage.  The bike accident.  That bloody night in the alley.

That night had been easily the worst in my life.  And yet I was quickly realizing it had also been my turning point. In the year before, I’d done nothing but wallow in Elle’s death.  I was apathetic and listless, with no regard for what my life might spiral into as I did nothing but wake up, go to work and come home, spending all the time in between staring at walls, thinking of Elle and sleeping too much.  I’d still been in that dark place the night Evan called.  I’d thought little enough of myself that I was willing to sleep with him that night if he wanted me to.

But running into Abram had woken me up.  I’d been forced to react, to take action to all the things happening around me.  I’d discovered that I was still alive in there – that I had fight and that with Elle gone, there were still other things in the world to live for.  There was still joy to be felt.

And for that, I was endlessly grateful.

“Alright.  Enough checking ourselves out,” Rhode smirked as she glanced at the clock.  “Doors open soon.  Let’s go have the best night of our lives.”

chapter seventeen

The floor had been transformed for the night, the boxing ring unveiled and the overhead spotlights shining.  The floor had buzzed all night and I’d delivered what felt like several hundred drinks in just the two hours before the fight started.  I was grateful to be kept so incredibly busy because it kept me from hyperventilating over Abram.  He was devastatingly handsome with his dark hair slicked back, wearing a crisp black suit and charcoal shirt.  A matching pocket square peeked from his jacket.  He was as formal as I’d ever seen him and he looked so incredibly good that I went half-insane every time I peeked his way.  It didn’t help that he hadn’t looked at me once.

It was even worse that by the start of the fight, he had a breathtakingly beautiful girl in his arms.

She was still impossibly petite in massive heels, with a wasp-like waist and a high bouffant.  She and Abram sat in an elevated area with a few important-looking men, including Nate, who sneered at me the one time I caught his eye.  Both he and Abram looked more serious than even their usual, as if conducting the gravest of business transactions.  I wished that wasn’t such a fucking sexy look on Abram.

“I know.  Ridiculous,” Rhode shook her head as she came to stand next to me.  The fight had officially started and everyone had a drink, so we waitresses all stood with our trays at the bar, some watching the fight, but most watching Abram.  “Actually unfair how hot that man is.  I don’t know who that lucky bitch is but damn her for getting to fuck him tonight.”

My stomach twisted.  I had hoped she was just a business associate but my doubts increased as the night went on.  By late evening, everyone at that table seemed to ease up.  Abram wet his lips as the girl rubbed his knee and whispered into his ear.  He whispered back intensely.  The more they drank, the more obvious they got, the girl resting her legs over his lap and Abram sliding his fingers under her dress. 
Are you serious. 
My face burned and my eyes refused to blink as I watched his hand begin moving slowly under her skirt.  It went on for what felt like ten full minutes, till she hugged her arms around his neck and whispered words that spread a wide grin across his lips.

I felt my heart splinter as I drowned out the scandalous whispers around me, watching Abram whisper in her ear, prompting her to get up and excuse herself before he did the same.

“Alright, man.  Bathroom fuck,” one of the bartenders cheered.

“Lucky ho,” Rhode griped as I felt myself shake. 
What the fuck?

But just as I’d concluded that I’d been presumptuous again, that I’d placed all too much importance on Abram while he placed just about zero on me, he surprised everyone by walking not after the girl, but toward us at the bar.

“Whoa, whoa, boss alert,” another bartender said.

“Babe alert,” Rhode corrected.

But we were all silent once he reached us.  “Hello, Mr. Lenox,” a few girls murmured as the bartender handed him his usual.  Abram only nodded back at them but their cheeks flushed anyway.  I watched closely as he grabbed his scotch off the bar, took a drink and then cast his steely eyes on me.  I froze.  His gaze – longer than a second – was long enough to send a dozen of my coworkers’ quizzical stares flying at me.

“Mr. Lenox?” I tried to smile politely despite my roller coaster of wretched emotions.  He smirked at my professional tone before walking toward the empty end of the bar and casually nodding for me to follow.  I heard the buzz of whispers behind me as I did so.  God, I hated how much this man kept me guessing – how often he had me questioning myself to the brink of insanity.  My heart beat out of my chest when we finally stood face to face, in plain view but out of earshot from anyone else.

“Hi,” was all he said.  I shook my head at him.

“Hi,” I returned harshly.

He took a drink.  He was in no rush to speak and I hated that.  He forced me to just watch him as he took a coaster off the bar and set it down before putting his glass neatly on top.  “I don’t know what you might be thinking right now,” he finally said, his words measured,  “and I don’t owe you an explanation but I can’t seem to sit at that table for much longer knowing that you’re watching me and getting the wrong idea, so I’m going to give you one.”

“You were fingering another girl in front of the entire room and she’s waiting for your cock in the bathroom right now.  What else do I need to know?” I demanded, trying but failing to be unemotional.  “That you plan on saying all the same words to her that you said to me? ‘
You drive me crazy, I can’t stop wanting you
.’  I’m guessing that’s what you tell every girl you fuck right before she makes you come.”

“Isla, I am
working
right now,” Abram finally snarled.  “This crowd, this night – none of it is coincidence.  I’m not here right now because I’m interested in watching a fight, I’m here because I have business to do and in case you didn’t assume, it has everything to do with why you ran into me with a dead fucking body in that alley, so the fact that I’m even here giving you this explanation right now is astounding to me because this is everything I knew I needed to avoid.  But like I said, it’s not your fault,” he said between gritted teeth.  “The mistake was solely mine.”

I stared, speechless.  “I am deeply sorry that you ever made the mistake of giving a shit about me.”

“So am I.”

My jaw dropped at his cruel words.  Tears stung my eyes but as I walked away, he grabbed my arm and snarled.

“I don’t think you understand me.”

I fought him.  “What the fuck else do I need to understand, Abram?”

“That my eyes follow you everywhere you go, Isla, even when I don’t want them to,” he muttered intensely under his breath.  When I tried to look away he held my jaw.  “I’m sure you think I haven’t looked at you once but the fact is that I nearly fucking passed out when you walked into this room.  I’ve watched you all night.  I saw every time you fixed your top, talked with Rhode.  I saw you when you bent down too far and could barely get up because of how tight that skirt is wrapped around your perfect fucking body.  I saw when you rolled your eyes at Nate, when you dropped all your napkins and I have fucking whiplash in my neck from watching your ass twitch all the way to the bar, every fucking time.”  He pulled me closer, his eyes blazing.  “I have blood on my hands and the most dangerous men in the city who are going to be hunting me like prey the second they find out what I did.  This is the most important moment of my life so yes, I wish I could’ve gone back in time and never met you, the same way you’d erase the fact that you watched a man die if you could.  But it’s all happened.  I’m not going to forget you at this point and I can’t sit at that table for another second acting like I don’t see you when you’re the only thing I can ever fucking see.”

The air drained from my lungs.  I was breathless
. 
There was so much I wanted to say yet I couldn’t make a sound.   But I didn’t have to.  Pulling me into him, Abram kissed me hard amid the raucous and chaos, in front of everyone, pulling away with the urgency of life or death in his voice.

“I need to take you upstairs right now.”

~

We had no regard for the elevator cameras.  Clinging to Abram’s neck, I moaned in his ear, his hand under my skirt and his fingers thrusting inside me, forcing every raspy cry from my lips.

Though we made it to the penthouse, we only got as far as the living room.  I gasped as Abram managed to undo what took me twenty minutes to get into, yanking my skirt down and ripping the top off my breasts.  Bending me over the back of the couch, he spread my legs, making me feel so deliciously vulnerable as the cold air hit my pussy.  I curled my fingers against the leather as I panted, feeling Abram’s hot gaze raking the length of my wetness.  I could hear his heavy breathing, his eyes devouring my sex as he took out his cock.  But my legs were shocked stiff when I felt sudden a warm breath on my folds.  I realized what it was just as I felt Abram’s tongue slide inside me.

“Oh God
,
” I gasped, folding over the couch as he tunneled in and out of me.  I stretched to my tippy toes, pushing the heel of my palm into the seat as he groaned deliciously against my sex, sending a hot vibration down my legs.  “Please don’t stop,” I begged, pressing my knees into the back of the couch, gripping the edge of the cushion as he trailed his tongue down to circle my clit.  I could hear him ripping open a condom as he continued his delicious onslaught on my sensitive pearl.  “Abram, please!” I whined when he suddenly stopped.

But after a second of tantalizing pause, I felt the smooth, pulsing head of his cock, so torturously slow as it eased into my pussy.  I moaned, immediately clenching around him.  “Yes,” Abram groaned leaned onto me.  “So fucking good, Isla… so fucking good.”  Grabbing hold of my hips, he plunged every inch of himself inside me, his pace so immediately furious that it seized my breath.  When I could speak again, his name poured with sheer pleasure from my mouth.  He rumbled at the sound.  “Again,” his whisper sliced through the thick air.  “Say my name.”  He slammed me hard against him.  I screamed his name.  He did it again.  It spilled from my lips.

Abram rumbled with satisfaction as he stood me straight, pulling me up against his chest and kissing the back of my neck while pumping deep inside me.  One hand kneading my breast, the other slid between my thighs, teasing my clit and launching me into sensory overload.  My mouth fell open.  I let my head fall back onto his shoulder, shivering at the sensation of his tongue in my ear.  I was at his mercy now, every part of my body in his ruthless possession.

“Fuck, just let me stay here.  Just let this fucking be it,” he exhaled, pain and pleasure dripping from his every word.  I moaned, my hand clasping over his, his grip on my breast squeezing tight as I got close.

“I’m coming,” I gasped.

“That’s all I need,” he panted in my ear, thrusting hard into my pussy, rubbing faster against my clit.  “That’s all I fucking need, Isla.”

“
Abram
– ”

He growled.  “Do it for me.”

I pitched forward as I came, Abram groaning as he held me tight against the base of his cock.  My walls pulsed around his shaft, so hot and hard that he growled to the ceiling before laying me on the couch and sinking into me again, his blue eyes gazing deep into mine.  I saw the pleasure twisting his face with every rhythmic plunge inside me.  I let out a soft moan.  Limp, breathless under him, I was still struck with one more need.  “I want you to come on me, Abram,” I pleaded, reveling in the flash of surprise in his eye before he clenched his jaw and pulled out, his abs clenching as he squeezed off the condom and exploded on my stomach, hissing my name as the final pumps spurted hot onto my breasts.