Cruz looked at Presley sideways as they sat in the back of an SUV worriedly.“You didn’t have to come.”“It’s me he is threatening.” She rubbed the leather upholstery of the bench seat they were on. “This is nice. Maybe having to be driven everywhere won’t be so awful if I get to sit on buttery leather, have a hot driver and you in the backseat.”He turned his torso to face her pursing his lips in annoyance, “hot driver?”“Cruz look at him,” she whispered mockingly to the man on the other side of the glass partition. “Your security team found me a guy bigger than you! It’s my type.”“You’re not his. He likes men.”“No way.”“You think jacked up guys can’t be gay?”“Yes, they can but not him. He looked at my ass.”“When?”“When I was getting into the car. I saw him checking me out.”He shook his head and frowned, “you’re trying to get me going.”“Am I?” she made wide eyes at him.“Distracting me because of where we are going.”“Well, you’re squeezing your cell phone so tight I’m surpri
“I’m so very confused,” Presley rubbed her forehead and with her other hand reached for Cruz. She needed his strength as all of hers seemed to have seeped from her body to pool somewhere under the table. She felt comforted as his large hand engulfed hers completely and then he moved sideways and pressed his lips to his temple.The lawyer spoke, “Miss Brookmore, my name is Atticus Marella. I am the legal advisor for multiple families associated with the Phoenix Initiative.”“Phoenix Initiative?”“Yes,” this time it was Belkin. “When we were coming up with a name of the organization where five families who usually fought one another for territory and profit were teaming up together, we came up with this name. Our goal is each woman we rescue to be like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Liborio, when drafting our insignia, insisted we use the same shade of auburn in the flames which matched the hair of his sister and mother in tribute to them. I digress of course,” Belkin sighed, “however
Presley Brookmore wasn’t one to let an opportunity pass her by. All of her life her older brother Odin and his two best friends Cruz Hawley and Anderson Oak did everything they could to terrorize her. Everything from jumping on her sandcastles when she was a little girl to making fun of her when she got her braces at ten to interrupting her first kiss when was thirteen.It was the first kiss which was on her mind now. While Odin and Anderson were always just on the right side of going too far, it was Cruz who didn’t just straddle the line, he hopped over it with vengeance. Cruz always took their games too far and if she wasn’t crying, he wasn’t laughing, and man did that boy love to laugh.She cocked her head to the side as she and her two friends, Sloane, Anderson’s little sister, and Halima were sitting in a restaurant. One might argue it purely happenstance which put them in the same restaurant as Cruz Hawley, but Presley was certain it was fate.“I haven’t seen him in like five, s
“I’m going to kill your fucking sister,” Cruz hissed into the phone he held to his ear.Odin’s voice was quiet for a half beat before he responded, “half-sister and what the fuck did she do?”“Assaulted me in a fucking restaurant, accused me of abandoning her at an abortion clinic, beating her up, breaking her arm which all ultimately scared my fucking date off. This was a fifty-million-dollar deal with my date’s father and your bitch of a sister fucked it up!” He kicked the tire of his car and growled furiously wanting to punch the fuck out of something. Considering the way many of the patrons were watching, he didn’t dare.“Well, you did break her arm,” Odin chuckled.“It was an accident.”“My Dad still thinks you were trying to kill her. I mean I don’t like the brat but bumping her off seemed excessive even to me.”“Would you fucking focus?” he nearly screamed at his childhood best friend. He and Odin were not as close as they once were. He’d moved away more than seven years ago an
Her footsteps faltered as she entered her parent’s home and noted the quartet seated on the patio. She caught her mother’s eye who was in the kitchen with the chef and housekeeper and pressed her lips together.“I didn’t know Odin was coming to brunch today or he was bringing guests.”“Me either and it’s been fucking delightful,” her mother guzzled a mimosa and then started making a second one while the housekeeper Mary huffed her agreement of the woman’s sarcastic snarl. “Anderson is drunk already I think, and Cruz hasn’t said two syllables however your father and Odin were bickering about money. I came in here to try to get a good buzz before I go back out there. Join me?”She giggled at her mom’s words and then accepted the offered drink, “bottoms up.” She took a long drink and then smacked her lips together, “delicious.”“Thanks. I told your father if I needed to put up with the bullshit out there, I was opening the champagne he was saving for our anniversary.”“Fair deal.”They c
Presley found herself wiping tears of frustration away in the bathroom. Odin’s hatred of her started before she was born. All the therapy she took over the course of her life still didn’t fix the ache in her heart each time he came at her. It made her act bitter, angry and shrew-like and she was so tired of it and him.Her father and Odin over the years got into more fights, some of them quite heated due to Odin’s treatment of Scarlett and Presley but it didn’t seem to faze Odin in the least. The worst part was, her grandfather felt it was something time would heal and so when he passed away five years ago, he put their inheritances in trusts for both her and Odin under the care of her father and it could only be released in monthly allotments following one shared meal a month for ten years. They’d gotten through five years of it but there were still five to go. She didn’t need the money from her inheritance but Odin did and so she was forced to endure his bullshit because they both n
She was almost back to the patio, her heart pounding and her head reeling with what occurred when her cell phone rang in her back pocket. She slipped to the side hall.“Hello?”“Hey, it’s me. Consuela.”Her editor. The best and most wonderful person on the planet next to Sloane and Halima as far as she was concerned. “Hey you. What can I do for you?”“Did you get a signed authorization for the photo you used for your cover?”She halted her footsteps, “um. No. I have his verbal. It’s recorded.”Consuela sighed, “legal is saying it’s not good enough. Especially since of the way the photo is being altered. They drafted a specific document. I’m going to email it to you, but you need to get this model’s signature in order to release the book. We delayed the release five days so you could get this change in your cover, and I admit I like it better, but we need the proper authorization.”“Why can’t we use the verbal?”“Because you and I both know it was coerced and it didn’t specifically out
“What was that for?”“So, she knows I didn’t forge it.”“You punched me in the throat. It hurt like a bitch but nothing like the way my balls need an ice pack.”“You cornered me and lifted me off the floor. I was defending myself.”“I want you to kiss it better.”“As if.”He pointed to the front of his neck just below the Adam’s apple where a red mark still lingered. “This. Kiss it better.”“Not in a million years.”“Kiss it better or I’m going out there to your father and telling him how you crashed my date last week.”“Go ahead and I’ll tell him how when I was sixteen and you were twenty-three you, Odin and Anderson came to the coffee bar where I was working and made me cry by humiliating me in front of the customers in the store for not doing your coffee right even though it was perfect.”“You were a shitty barista, and I paid nine bucks for the coffee you fucked up.”“I didn’t fuck it up. You caused a scene to humiliate me.”“Kiss me better or I’m going out there.”“Why?”“Because
“I’m so very confused,” Presley rubbed her forehead and with her other hand reached for Cruz. She needed his strength as all of hers seemed to have seeped from her body to pool somewhere under the table. She felt comforted as his large hand engulfed hers completely and then he moved sideways and pressed his lips to his temple.The lawyer spoke, “Miss Brookmore, my name is Atticus Marella. I am the legal advisor for multiple families associated with the Phoenix Initiative.”“Phoenix Initiative?”“Yes,” this time it was Belkin. “When we were coming up with a name of the organization where five families who usually fought one another for territory and profit were teaming up together, we came up with this name. Our goal is each woman we rescue to be like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Liborio, when drafting our insignia, insisted we use the same shade of auburn in the flames which matched the hair of his sister and mother in tribute to them. I digress of course,” Belkin sighed, “however
Cruz looked at Presley sideways as they sat in the back of an SUV worriedly.“You didn’t have to come.”“It’s me he is threatening.” She rubbed the leather upholstery of the bench seat they were on. “This is nice. Maybe having to be driven everywhere won’t be so awful if I get to sit on buttery leather, have a hot driver and you in the backseat.”He turned his torso to face her pursing his lips in annoyance, “hot driver?”“Cruz look at him,” she whispered mockingly to the man on the other side of the glass partition. “Your security team found me a guy bigger than you! It’s my type.”“You’re not his. He likes men.”“No way.”“You think jacked up guys can’t be gay?”“Yes, they can but not him. He looked at my ass.”“When?”“When I was getting into the car. I saw him checking me out.”He shook his head and frowned, “you’re trying to get me going.”“Am I?” she made wide eyes at him.“Distracting me because of where we are going.”“Well, you’re squeezing your cell phone so tight I’m surpri
Presley looked down at Cruz as her shaking fingers unbuttoned his shirt to push it back off his shoulders. His hazel eyes were clear and focused on her as if memorizing each tiny detail of her features and yet she was mesmerized by the golden flesh she was uncovering. Vacation sunshine gave his skin a sun kissed and burnished glow Her palm ran over his thick pecs, stroking his nipples and cupping the taut sinew of his flesh. His cock twitched under her as she explored the curves of his abdomen and then back up his shoulders and it forced a smile to her face.“What are you grinning like the Cheshire Cat for?” he asked as he wriggled his arm out of the sleeve of his shirt to allow her further exploration.She ground her pelvis against his, “ten seconds of touching you and you’re already getting hard.”“Ladybird, I can get hard thinking of the smile on your face, let alone having you touch me.”She continued letting her hands search as he pulled his shirt from under him and tossed it asi
Presley entered her place in Gastown, in the city center of Vancouver and felt the tears fall down her cheeks.Cruz immediately seeing her crying grabbed her and hugged, “what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”“I’m so happy to be home. I thought,” her words were clogging her throat as she tried to get them out, “I’d never come here again. I thought I’d never see my own place again.”“Oh Ladybird,” he sighed as he lifted her up in his arms bridal style and carried her deeper into the space and towards a loveseat. He sat down and cuddled her against his chest.She sniffled and reached for a throw blanket behind his shoulder, “my Nana made this for me when I was a little girl. She died when I was really young, but I still have it and I’m so happy it’s still here and I get to touch it again.” She draped it over her knees as she sat across Cruz’s lap. She gave a giggle. “You make my small apartment look even smaller, Kong.”“Kong with two dongs,” he amended as he recited the name Algernon gave
Walking into the breakfast area in the morning, Presley was surprised to find it full of Russian men and she couldn’t contain her giggle when Cruz walked in behind her, and they all pounded their chests and screamed “Kong!”“You are so never living it down.”“I imagine they could have given me worse nicknames,” he shrugged as he nodded at Anderson who was sitting in a corner morosely pushing an omelet around his plate. “They named him Chip.”“Chip?”“Like microchip but chip.”“I wonder what is wrong with him?”“I imagine it’s that,” Cruz gestured in the direction of where Halima was sitting at a table surrounded by six Russian men all eagerly sharing their breakfasts with her and flirting outrageously.“Rami is here!” Presley tore away from Cruz and raced to where he was standing by the breakfast bar. “Rami!”“My fifth sister!” he swung her up in his arms, hugging her tightly. “It is so good to see you looking so well rested.” He set her down and pulled something from inside the pocke
The room looked the same. Why she thought or believed the room she shared with Cruz was going to be different somehow after only a couple of nights away was confusing to her. Yet, in her mind, as she looked around the room and saw all her belongings exactly where she left them, interspersed with Cruz’s things, she felt the urge to cry. Nothing was changed.“What’s wrong?” Cruz immediately noted the way she was rapidly blinking.“I thought it would be altered.”“Altered how?”“I don’t know. I thought maybe my things would be gone or put away or yours would be packed up.”He smiled as he took her hand and led her to the bathroom. “Now why would I pack stuff up? I wasn’t leaving here without you, Presley.” He turned the shower on. “Do you want help or do you want some time alone?”“Would you be upset if I said I wanted some time alone?”“You’ve been surrounded by men for the last twenty-four hours, all of whom you didn’t know. I completely understand why you want to be alone. Take your s
Once they arrived back at the resort, Presley was taken into a reserved room where food and drinks were prepared for her and her family.Algernon and Sloane were the last to arrive and Presley was dumbfounded by her best friend’s appearance. Bruised eyes, swollen lips and hair in disarray, her friend who was usually so well put together, was a mess.Sloane raced to her and hugged her tight. “I missed you.”“Did you because you look like you’ve been very well distracted.” Presley was only half-teasing.“I think I love him,” Sloane whispered in her ear. “I’ve never felt like this before. He sees me, Presley. He sees my heart and we connect so deeply. I can’t help but feel all of this was some divine plan to bring me into his life or him into mine. All I know is it’s meant to be. I think I love him.”Presley squeezed her friend in her arms, “then love him. It’s okay to love him. He’s a good man. He’s a nice man. If he makes you happy, then I’m happy.”“Are you okay?” Sloane leaned back t
The men lifted the door off the groaning man on the floor and Presley stifled a giggle.“That was insane.” She looked at Cruz who was glowering at the man with such rage she wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to stomp on the man without the door between them. She immediately moved to stand in front of him. “Hey, Kong,” he turned and gave her an annoyed glance, “good job taking out the bad guy like a movie star stunt man but maybe we can get out of the way so they can get him upstairs.”“I’d rather throw the fucking door back on top of him.”“With the way his nose is bleeding, I think it’s broken and he’s breathing funny so definitely some broken ribs. You’ve done enough damage.” She was tugging him back towards the stairs. She grinned at Belkin who was waiting, “it worked. Cruz jumped on him.”The men all started cheering as Liborio was dragged up the stairs and thrown at Belkin’s feet. Belkin squatted and grabbed the semi-conscious man by the jaw.“You fucked up my friend. You kidnapped a w
Presley wrapped her arms and legs around Cruz’s neck, and he crushed her to his frame.“Fuck Ladybird, oh fuck,” his voice cracked as he buried his head in her hair.She couldn’t help herself and she was sobbing uncontrollably in the crook of his neck as he stood holding her while men milled all around them. Despite the yelling and the way everyone was rushing around, in the midst of trying to get the ship back under their control before other factions arrived to assist Liborio, she felt nothing but the relief of being in Cruz’s arms.She felt him carrying her away after someone yelled at him in French and he was taking her to a more secure location, away from the possibility of gunfire. He wasn’t letting her go through. The sound of his sniffling and clearing his throat made her pull her head back and look at him. Tears stained his cheeks as he tucked them against a small corner of a wall. Cupping his cheeks with her hands she stared into his eyes. “Hi.”His laugh made her smile, “hi