Unworthy (The Worthy Series Book 1) Read online

  A rush of gratitude and panic hit Cat as she realized if she hadn’t stood her ground with Ian, she would’ve gone to his house and left her brother in this state all alone. Well, not quite alone. Amy was caring for him as professionally as a nurse. But still, if Ian had his way, she’d lock Danny out of the house and leave him to bleed out in the driveway. She knew that wasn’t one hundred percent a fair assessment, but it was how she felt Ian was pressuring her to treat her only family member.

  “Go to bed, Amy. I’ll get it from here.”

  Amy looked up. “You sure?”

  “Yes. He’s my brother. You’ve done more than enough. Thanks again. I swear I’ll make this up to you someday. I’ll work for free or something.” She blathered some more promises before Amy shut her up with a hug, then left for her own bed.

  Cat took Amy’s place at Danny’s side.

  “You really did it this time,” Cat whispered as she uselessly tried to heal her brother with warm water and Neosporin. “What am I going to do? Ian thinks I should hang you out to dry, and, trust me, it’s really tempting.” She continued to talk to her brother, who was either sleeping or unconscious. But his breathing seemed even and steady, so she kept on.

  “What would Mom and Dad say if they saw you? They’d be so disappointed and angry, Danny. They’d be so fucking angry that you did this to yourself and to me. How could you spend all the money?” In the last few years, there’d been no opportunity to have an honest conversation with her brother because he’d either been absent or not in a conversational mindset, e.g. drugged out of his mind. Given the chance, Cat finally let it all out, all the hurt and fear and anger she had at her brother.

  “I’m not supposed to be in Miami. I’m stuck here because of you.” As she said the words, she realized if she weren’t in Miami, she’d be finishing law school and likely living in a city where she’d need a winter coat, and most importantly, she wouldn’t have Ian back in her life. Who knew what kind of guy she would’ve ended up with? Probably some khaki-wearing law school type. She shuddered.

  Sometimes life worked out the way it was supposed to, but the universe had a shitty way of dealing cards. Was she really meant to lose both her parents at such a young age and deal with her brother’s addiction, all to earn Ian? “Universe, you suck,” Cat said aloud, and Danny muttered something unintelligible in response. “You said it,” she said, looking down at her brother’s destroyed face.

  A wave of tenderness washed over her and she remembered him holding her on his back as he swam around their pool. And his eager face when she opened the birthday present of clothes for her Cabbage Patch kid that only he’d known she’d wanted. Or how he’d been her total anchor after Mom and Dad died and he’d made sure she did her homework and had a dress to wear to the Homecoming dance.

  He’d taken care of her at the worst time in her life, and she owed it to him to reciprocate. “I’m going to get you to a doctor, then pay off your dealer,” she said, full of resolve, tears streaming down her cheeks. “And then you’re getting clean.” Unfortunately, all of her resolutions required money. Money she didn’t have, but she knew someone who did.

  “What the fuck is going on with you?” Drew asked as they stood outside double glass doors on Ninth Street and waited for the owner.

  Ian pulled back from trying to peer through the dirty glass to get a glance at the potential site to look at his business partner and friend. “What are you talking about?”

  Drew gave him an exasperated look. “You disappeared last night. On an Art Basel night. Do you even know what our cut was last night?”

  Because he didn’t know how much money they’d earned last night, he changed the subject. “I wasn’t gone that long. I had to deal with Cat.” Understatement. After Cat had left the back office, he’d returned to the club and spent the rest of the night in a total funk. He hadn’t texted or called her and she hadn’t contacted him. He tried not to panic.

  “Exactly,” Drew said. “What is the deal with this girl? She’s got you unfocused, which is a complication we don’t need. Especially now. We’re this damn close to having the cake to build the dream.”

  “I know,” he said.

  Drew continued as if Ian hadn’t spoken. “It’s as if you don’t care anymore. I actually had to remind you about this meeting, but I’m not sure you’re interested. You’re all about Cat, and frankly, I don’t get it.”

  Ian looked at him sharply, worried Drew was about to say something negative about Cat, and then he was going to have to set him straight.

  “We’re in Miami with access to the most beautiful women in the world. Why choose one when you can have a buffet every night?” Drew asked.

  “I’ve eaten at the buffet. It’s all the same after a while. Cat is different. Always has been. She’s always been it for me, but it took me a while to see it.”

  Drew’s response was cut short by the appearance of the owner. Luis Feralta was younger than Ian had expected from his phone conversations with the guy. And then introductions were made and they discovered that the young man in front of them was actually Luis’s nephew, Ernesto.

  He led them inside the dusty space. “Used to be one of the hottest spots in the fifties,” Ernesto bragged. “My uncle played in the house band.”

  Ian and Drew inspected the place. Sometime after its heyday, the space had been converted to a diner and then had obviously sat empty for some time, given the level of dust and disuse that now permeated the place.

  “You’re looking to rent the place or buy?” Ernesto asked.

  “Buy,” Drew answered.

  “Hmm,” was the reply.

  “He doesn’t want to sell?” Ian asked sharply, not wanting to waste his time touring places that weren’t for sale.

  Ernesto scratched his hair that held enough product to glue together a third grade science fair project. “Maybe not. We have some ideas for the place.”

  Ian caught Drew’s pointed look. Ernesto was bullshitting them. Maybe they had ideas, but they lacked the capital to act. Otherwise the former club would be restored and not about to fall in on their heads.

  “Okay. We’ll stop wasting our time,” Ian said. “Drew?” He gave a head nod to the door and made a move to leave. Drew followed.

  “We haven’t decided for sure,” Ernesto said. His fingers played with his hair again, which Ian quickly deciphered was his tell.

  “Call us when you decide,” Drew said.

  They made it all the way to the front door before Ernesto broke. “What would you offer?”

  Ian named a number that was at least one hundred K less than the place was worth.

  Shockingly, Ernesto bit. He pulled out his phone and spoke rapid-fire Spanish into it. After ending the call, he looked at them. “My uncle wants to meet both of you. He’s invited you for coffee next door.”

  Ian glanced at Drew, who nodded, and they allowed Ernesto to lead the way two doors down to a typical Miami café. An older man sat alone at a table sipping café Cubano and pretending to read El Herald.

  Ernesto made the introductions, then disappeared as Ian and Drew pulled up chairs. Drew refused the offer of a drink until Ian punched his thigh under the table. They were in Luis’ territory now, and they wanted what he had to offer.

  For all of Drew’s ribbing about Ian’s lack of attention, Ian was one hundred percent in. Buying and renovating a nightclub in a neighborhood about to gentrify had long been his dream. He didn’t want to throw parties in other people’s clubs any more. He wanted a spot to call home.

  Luis’ building was perfect. The neighborhood had been the jewel of Miami in its prime and was poised to rise to popularity again. He and Drew had been saving their pennies to have the cash to restore a place and throw some of the greatest parties in Miami.

  He shut thoughts of Catherine out of his mind and focused on attaining his dream, which was close enough to taste.

  Two hours and three cups of café con leche later, it was done. They had agreed on a
price that was at the top end of their budget, but still within it. All that was left was to bring in the paper pushers and make things official.

  Ian and Drew rose to shake Luis’ hand, as his nephew, Ernesto, rolled him back from the table and pushed him in his wheelchair.

  Ian glanced at his college roommate, now business partner, and they shared a savored moment of pure glee. The emotion got to him and he grabbed Drew for a back pounding hug.

  “We’re club owners,” Drew said with wonderment in his voice.

  “Not yet,” Ian said. “The bank has to sign off and then there will be a few months of construction before we can open the doors.”

  “Don’t be a downer. Savor the moment.”

  Ian grinned. He wanted to jump and shout and maybe even dance a jig on Calle Ocho, but mostly, he wanted to find Cat and tell her the amazing news. Unfortunately, she wasn’t talking to him at the moment because she was busy “thinking.” Whatever the hell that meant.

  “Drew’s boat is gorgeous,” Cat said, stretching out on the blue cushioned seat cover. She rubbed a little sunscreen onto her legs and enjoyed the view of her man at the controls of the boat. She’d called him the moment she’d returned from the hospital after taking Danny to get his arm in a cast.

  The conversation had initially been hesitant but warmed after she apologized for distancing herself from him. Ian had seemed happy to hear from her and had exciting news of his own to share, so he invited her out for a day on the ocean. Since it had been years since she’d had a day on a boat, he could’ve asked her to murder her brother in exchange, and she would’ve agreed. He hadn’t told her the big news yet, said he was saving it to tell her in a special spot on the bay.

  “Yeah. His apartment is shit and so is his car,” Ian said. “Spent all his money on this thing.”

  “I see the value.” She relaxed back on the royal blue waterproof material of the bench in front of the captain’s wheel. She didn’t know what to look at first: the city of Miami sprawled out on either side of the inner coastal, or at Ian competently manning the wheel in board shorts and no shirt.

  Ian won, no contest. Too many boats passed by for Ian to be distracted, but as soon as they were in open ocean, she was grabbing him and touching him everywhere her hands itched to touch. The only downside of the day was knowing that she had to ask him for money. Her conscience fought an internal war with her brain telling her to give Ian the truth, but she guessed how Ian would react.

  There was no way he’d give her money to cover Danny’s mistakes. He’d said he’d offered her brother rehab, and nothing more, so she’d have to lie.

  As if he could read her thoughts, he glanced back at her, but with his sunglasses on, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Unconsciously, her tongue ran over her lips.

  “C’mere.” He jerked his head, and she jumped to stand next to him.

  “Hold this,” he ordered and took a hand off the wheel to move her into position between him and the wheel. He was tall enough he could still easily see over her head, but the position allowed her to feel Ian’s muscular chest at her bare—but for a string bikini top—back and his groin at the crease in her bathing suit bottom. She arched back and rubbed the scrap of red spandex against the growing bulge in Ian’s shorts.

  “Behave,” he said and nipped at her upper ear lobe.

  “Not a chance.”

  He laughed. She rose on her toes and lowered down, keeping her ass in contact with his now full-blown erection.

  “Ian,” she yelped when he removed one hand from steering the boat to insert it between the elastic of her bikini bottoms.

  “You’re wet for me.” His pinky grazed her clit.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s the boat, isn’t it? Drew said chicks fucking love the boat.”

  “It’s not the boat,” she whispered and turned slightly to kiss his pectoral. “It’s you.”

  His hand caught her chin and lifted it until they were looking into each other’s eyes. At some point he’d pushed his sunglasses onto his hair. Then he lowered his face for the sweetest kiss she’d ever known. Sweet turned into steamy from one second to the next. Tongues dueled and bodies rubbed together.

  Finally he pulled back. “Gotta watch the ocean. Don’t want to have to buy Drew a new boat.”

  “Or worse, drown.”

  He smiled. “Go back over there.” He pointed to the space in the front of the boat designed for sunbathing. “You’re a distraction over here.”

  She leaned up to give him another kiss, then did her best to walk like a distraction to the requested spot, taking a second to scoop up her sunglasses and towel. She collapsed onto the padded deck and let the world drift by as she and Ian sped toward an unknown destination. He’d zoomed through the intercoastal and gone to open ocean quickly, and soon only a sporadic boat passed by but not close enough to see onto the deck easily.

  The ocean waves stopped speeding past and she noted they were now rocking in place. Good, now he could join her on deck and they could finish where that kiss was leading. A shadow fell across her and she looked up to see Ian looming over her. She held out a hand, which he accepted and soon he was next to her on the lounge. No, make that, on her, on the lounge.

  His hands and mouth were all over her body, and she had her legs wrapped around his hips, heels dug in, in two seconds flat. Need crashed in as if it had been more than two days since they’d made love. “Kiss me,” she said on a moan, reaching and trying to grab his head.

  “I am,” he said between kisses that were nowhere near her lips.

  “On my mouth.”

  He ignored her and continued his exploratory path on her shoulders, her belly, and then her breasts. Her bikini top was untied expertly and tossed aside. She tried to reach under the waistband of his board shorts, but he grasped her wrists and held them above her head. “Don’t touch me yet,” he said. “I’ve been on edge since you walked on deck in that bathing suit.”

  She ignored his decree and played with the skin on his biceps with her lips and tongue.

  “New rule. Next time we go out on a boat, you wear a robe or a mom suit.”

  “Mom suit?”

  “Yeah, you know. No stomach showing. Little skirt around your ass.”

  She laughed and then he released her hands, which shot like a magnet to grip his ass. She pulled him in tight, grinding up against him where she most wanted him.

  Being in a bikini reminded her of all the times she, her brother, and Ian had horsed around in her backyard. As a young teen, she hadn’t fully understood the power she wielded with her body, but she’d known enough to feel Ian’s gaze whenever he thought she wasn’t looking. Now as adults, they were free to look, touch, and more.

  “Hell, you’d be sexy in that little skirt. I’d want to lift it and peek at your ass,” he growled.

  She didn’t respond because her lips found his and sucked him into another mind-blowing kiss. Ian Lawrence needed to insure his tongue, because he knew what he was doing with it. Odes and sonnets could and should be written to the talent this man had with his tongue.

  Lord knew it had her quivering and aroused. “I want you in me,” she said, pulling apart from his mouth for a split second before he captured it again.

  “Soon.”

  “Now.”

  She shimmied out from underneath him and got to her knees to untie the knot on her bikini bottoms. It had been devious of her, but she’d purposely picked her sexiest bikini that was basically strings, held together with a little bow tie on each hip. On a normal trip to the beach, the bow ties would be double knotted. Not today.

  A loose single knot held the thing on, and once she was sure his gaze was on her, she tugged a single string on her right hip until the triangle peeled apart, then finished tugging on her left hip.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “Thought the bow was for show. Woulda had you naked a long time ago.”

  “Well, now you have me naked. What will you do with me?” She spoke d
irectly to him, but her stare did not leave the formidable bulge in his lime green board shorts. She wanted him naked. Like yesterday. The night in the office of the club, they’d kept things mostly in the shadowy dark. Today, the sun shone down, and she wanted to examine every inch of his body.

  “I’m going to fuck you,” he said seriously. “Hard.”

  Her belly gave a delighted little quiver of excitement. He got her going when he told her stuff like that, she had no trouble believing her body was about to be used hard. She wanted it badly.

  “Stand up,” he said. When she was on her feet, he sat straighter and pulled her ankles apart. “I want to look at my girl.”

  She swallowed, but planted her feet on either side of his thighs, giving praise for her full Brazilian, which had been worth the pain. The look on Ian’s face warranted every ouch of curly hair roots being yanked from her delicate skin.

  Ian’s large palms grasped her ass and pulled her in tight to his face, and she knew what he wanted when his tongue shot out to lick her clit then go deeper between her open lips.

  Her knees shook, and she worried she would be either ass planting it on deck or keeling over the railing into the gray Atlantic. Neither was a desirable outcome, so she concentrated on keeping her balance while her man rocked her world with his oh-so-talented tongue. Had she mentioned his tongue before? Probably, but it was worth mentioning twice. Not only could his words charm the bikini bottoms off her in seconds, he could lick her to orgasm even faster.

  “Ian,” she cried, losing her balance and grabbing his head. He laughed and caught her around the waist to pull her down to his lap.

  He looked her straight in the eyes. “I’ve got you.”

  She swallowed, knowing he meant it to have dual meanings.

  “Ride me, Cat.” He pushed something into her palm, and she saw he’d laid a streamer of condoms on the pad next to them. She tore open one pack and got busy rolling it onto his erection. When he was sheathed, she kneeled with her thighs surrounding his and his hands gently but firmly spreading her ass cheeks wide. She sank down onto his dick, using her hands and legs for leverage.