Worthwhile Page 17
“Tell me, Olivia. I’m still back here enjoying the view while my hand is wrapped around my dick. I’m going to come in a second, and you’re going to be left out. So, tell me. What are you feeling?”
“You,” she gasped out. “I feel your big body all around me, and I love feeling you jerking off against my back. One day soon I want to watch you, because I love your body, and I want to see what it’s like when you do that. And your lips are near my ear, and I can feel every warm breath, but there’s a tiny part of me worried that you’re going to bite my ear lobe, and I’m scared of that, but I want it, too.”
In response, he gently nibbled on the side of ear just above her lobe.
She squeezed her breasts harder. “Why is that so good? They’re my breasts, and I feel them on my body all the time, and it doesn’t do much of anything for me, but now, knowing you’re watching my hands on my nipples makes them super sensitive and it’s like their directly connected down there.
“Pinch them,” he grated in her ear. “Then tell me.”
She followed orders, then…“Oh, God.” She dissolved into an explosion of feeling. Because the second she’d started talking, he’d begun touching and probing and then finger fucking her in earnest. Her own pinch to her nipples sent her over the edge, because it was echoed in a movement with his fingers. He had one finger deep inside her and another on her clit.
“Keep going,” he ordered. She felt his right hand moving faster and more furiously against her lower spine.
She shook her head mutely. “Coming.” It was all she could manage.
“Shit, me too. Feel you squeezing my finger. So fucking hot.” His whole body tensed around her, and she felt something warm hit her skin on her back. His forehead dropped onto her shoulder, and his fingers toyed with her gently and slowly. She suspected he could coax another orgasm from her if he chose, but he yawned against her, with a mouth wide enough to swallow her shoulder.
“Bedtime,” she said and turned nurse again. She rose out of the water first and grabbed towels for them both.
He didn’t accept the hand she offered to help him out of the water, and she watched him carefully, ready to catch him if he swayed in the slightest. Together they made it to his bedroom where he loaned her a soft, well-worn Gators T-shirt. May her brother never know of the blasphemy that occurred, because he was a Canes fan. At least it wasn’t a Noles shirt. That was an unforgiveable sin.
“Night, baby. I’m so glad you came over.”
“Me too.”
Drew bent his head and captured her cheeks between his palms. “This was rough, not going to deny it, but we’re worth fighting through this.”
She nodded, and her smile warmed places in him that had been cold for so long. “You’re right and tomorrow I’m going to do something I should’ve done from the beginning.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Introduce you to my parents.”
He pulled her in close, feeling a smile on his face as he settled into sleep.
The next morning at the butt crack of dawn, they were woken by Ian, Cat, James, and an unfamiliar man that James introduced as Lawrence. James did all their corporate lawyering, but he’d brought along his golf buddy, Lawrence because the dude had way more experience in criminal matters.
Luckily his mom was still sleeping so she didn’t have to know any of the shit that had gone down. He’d gone to answer the door alone, but within a minute, Olivia exited his room, smoothing a borrowed t-shirt over her hips.
He made the introductions quick, and then they all sat around his living room.
Ian started things off with a bang. “She’s gone,” he announced.
“Who? Amber?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t show up for work last night, so Carlos and I went to the address on her employee forms. She’d lived there with her boyfriend. Correction. Ex-boyfriend. She moved out last week. No forwarding address.”
At that point, Lawrence got busy asking questions, and Drew rehashed the night he suspected he was drugged the best he could. He pulled up the video on his laptop and watched Lawrence watch it, a furrow between his brows.
“What do we do?” Ian asked, leaning forward in his seat.
Lawrence and James exchanged a glance.
James shook his head and said slowly, “You’ve got no drug test from a hospital proving you were drugged, and you have a missing employee. All you have is a video of Drew getting busy with a hot woman on the dance floor. Even if we were to find this Amber chick, it’s not like she’s going to confess. Criminals tend not to do that. You got fucked. You move on.”
“There’s nothing Drew can do?” Olivia asked softly.
“Sorry,” Lawrence said. “I wish I had a better answer, but you’re going to have to let it go. Do better background checks on new hires. And if you ever suspect you were drugged again, call the police immediately.”
“You good with that?” Ian asked Drew directly. The scowl on his face told him that his business partner was not good. He knew Ian would take it to the ends of the earth if he said the word, hiring private investigators and bounty hunters to search for their former bartender, but what was the point?
“She’s gone. We let her go. Like James said, it’s not like she’d confess even if we found her. I doubt we’ll see her at OXCA again.”
“Oh, she’d confess,” Ian said darkly.
“Since when have you ever tortured a woman?” he asked. Cat said something snarky, but couldn’t make out the words.
“Sounds like Amber’s a dead end. We’ve got to get to Olivia’s for brunch.” He rose and clasped hands with all the law degree holders in the room. “Thanks for coming over.” For Ian, he gave a bro hug. It was easy to verbalize that he’d have to live without revenge on Amber, but living with it was another matter.
Not sucker punching the guy was one of the harder things Drew had ever done. He’d been so busy worrying about meeting Olivia’s parents, he hadn’t thought that Javier would be there.
He knew something was up, the minute he walked into Olivia’s parents’ house a step behind her. She froze, inadvertently setting a pick, and he crashed into her back. Then he saw the reason. Javier was lounged on a sofa chatting it up with Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez like he was a member of the family.
Immediately, her arm shot back to grab him and squeeze him hard. It was a warning. One he heeded. He wasn’t going to say anything because the bitch of it was there was nothing to say.
He was still inwardly beating himself up for not having gone to the hospital to get tested for a drug in his system. If he had, then there would’ve been something to go on.
He and Ian agreed to pay more attention to their employees’ personal lives in the future. They should’ve known what was going on with Amber. He should’ve known something was up when she picked a fight with him every time they spoke. She was easy prey for Javier to approach about drugging her boss.
Olivia’s gaze met his in the foyer of her house, and she widened her eyes at him. “Later,” she mouthed.
He wasn’t sure what that meant. Did she mean they’d discuss things later, or that he’d get to punch Javier later? He wished he had backup with him in the form of Ian or Carlos. He was one week off kidney surgery, and he was now vulnerable in a way he’d never been before. It was an uncomfortable feeling knowing you had a huge liability. One hard punch to his remaining kidney, and he’d have problems.
“Olivia,” a woman he assumed to be her mother exclaimed. She rose, and he got an eyeful of what Olivia would look like in middle age. Still gorgeous. “This must be Drew.”
Olivia watched her mother shake Drew’s hand, and realized she was shaking. This was the first time—ever—she’d brought a man home. He already had two strikes against him. He wasn’t Colombian, and she’d spent the night at his house last night.
She was lucky her father wasn’t waiting for them with a shotgun. Instead, he was coming over to offer Drew his hand and look him up and down.
Her father’s smile was faint, but present. “You speak Spanish.” He turned to her. “Livvy, you didn’t tell us.”
“Surprise,” she managed.
“For a gringo, you sound pretty good,” Dad said.
Drew laughed, and Olivia drew the first deep breath since all those days ago when the otoscope cord had wrapped around her neck.
“Come, let’s have brunch,” her mother said. “Javi, get off the couch and meet Olivia’s man.”
“We’ve met,” Drew said, and Olivia caught the showdown stare of death connecting the two men.
“Sure, let’s eat,” she said. “But first I want to wash up. I’ll show Drew where the powder room is.” Without waiting for responses, she grabbed Drew by the wrist and tugged him off to the bathroom. She turned on the faucet and whispered, “I’m sorry. I had no idea he’d be here.”
Drew made a good show of washing his hands. Despite all the drama and concern about Javier in the next room, she still found time to admire his strong hands and wonder when they’d be on her next. Last night, in bed they’d done nothing more than hold each other and drift into much-needed sleep. She suspected neither of them had had peaceful dreams in a week.
“I don’t know if I’m a good enough actor to pull this off,” he said. “I want to hold a knife to his throat and get him to confess if he paid Amber to do something to me.”
She put her palm on his pectoral and hoped he’d calm down, but then she realized, she was equally, if not more upset. And angry. And guilty. If Javier had been fixated on her for all this time, she should’ve seen it and stopped him before he went so far. It was her fault Drew was dealing with this. She looked at the reflection of the two of them in the mirror. “You’re right,” she said. “He did something horribly wrong. What if you’d died from whatever Amber put in your drink?”
He nodded soberly.
“What should we do?”
“We go out to brunch, pretend everything’s all right, and hope Javier messes up. Plus your father’s going to come strangle me if we’re alone in the bathroom much longer.”
“Don’t joke about strangling,” she said, trailing a finger along her still sore neck.
He kissed the skin where her finger had been, making her shiver. “Let’s go,” he whispered.
She swallowed and girded herself for sitting at a table across from Javier. It was worse than she’d expected. Her parents had unwittingly put her in a spot between Drew and Javier. Thank goodness Drew had a firm grip on her thigh, anchoring her.
There was one empty seat at the table which she assumed was for her abuelo, but Gabriel sauntered in a second later. He did an almost cartoonish double take when he saw Drew at the table. They shook hands.
“You know him, Gabi?” her mother asked, as she affectionately smoothed her eldest son’s hair.
“We’ve met,” Gabriel said shortly, then glared at Olivia. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing him again.”
She swallowed hard. Ay, had her brother played a role in Javier’s machinations? “Actually,” she said, and reached for Drew’s hand, settling their clasped fists on the table in full view of everyone. “We are better than ever. Someone tried to make me think Drew had cheated, but someone was wrong.” She looked dead into Javier’s eyes as she spoke. She was no poker player, but he gave no tells or seemed concerned in the least.
“Why would someone do that, Livvy?” her mother asked, sounding concerned.
“Good question,” she answered. “Maybe that someone hoped if I weren’t dating Drew, I’d date him instead.” Again, she kept her gaze on Javier.
Drew squeezed her hand. Whether in warning or solidarity, she didn’t know.
Her brother looked from Drew to Javier. “But there was a video. I saw it.”
“Me too,” she said, “But there was a lot more to the story. All that matters is that Drew and I have worked through it.” She turned to smile at Drew as if they had no other cares in the world.
Still no reaction from Javier. He sat stony-faced eating eggs as if the world would end if he stopped. Maybe she’d been imagining the whole thing. Maybe Javier had nothing to do with it.
No, she hadn’t imagined seeing texts from her on Drew’s phone. Texts she’d never written as she’d been nearly unconscious in the hospital. What had he been thinking? Did he think he wouldn’t get caught? Or did he not care?
“As long as you’re happy, Livvy,” her dad said.
“Once a cheater, always a cheater,” Javier muttered, so quietly she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.
“Javier,” her mother said. “This is not the time.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Rodriguez,” Drew said. “I happen to agree with him. I should know. My father never managed to be faithful to my mother. I saw firsthand how that hurts a family.” He leaned around Olivia to face Javier. “If you have something you want to say to me, say it.”
Javier rose, throwing down his napkin. Pure aggressiveness bled off him like he was a pit bull chained to a fence wanting to be free.
Drew rose too, although more slowly and carefully.
She panicked. Drew was recovering from surgery. No matter how badly Javier deserved a beat down, Drew wasn’t the man to deliver it. At least not today.
She flew to her feet. “Basta. Enough! Javier, we know what you did with my phone and we suspect what you did to Drew’s drink.”
Javier frowned. “His drink? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You had my bartender put something in my drink and then you showed up to tape the whole thing,” Drew said.
Javi held up his hands. “Whoa. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I showed up at the club to tell you in person about Olivia being in the hospital. I got there and you were…” He glanced at her parents. “Dancing with that woman. Was I pissed? Hell yeah. Olivia deserves better. But I didn’t drug you like some kind of psychopath.” He turned to her. “I can’t believe you of all people would think that of me. Amor, you believe me, right?”
Drew slammed his fist to the table. “Don’t call her your amor.”
She sank to her chair. “I…I don’t know what to believe. What about the texts?”
“He’d cheated on you,” Javi yelled. “And you were unconscious in the hospital. I was pissed. Yeah, it was stupid to pretend to be you and text him, but you weren’t up to it. I’m sorry,” he said to her.
“Apologize to Drew also,” she said. “He bore the brunt of your decision.”
Javier and Drew engaged in a five-second stare down, and then Javi shook his head and stormed out. Everyone still left at the table sat or stood in awkward silence like at a wedding where everyone knows the groom is gay but the bride.
“That went well,” Gabriel said when the slam of the front door echoed in the dining room.
Drew slowly retook his seat next to her.
“Olivia, we need some explanations,” he father said.
Quickly she told them the whole story, including their suspicions about Javier.
When she was finished, her brother tsked. “Liv, he fucked—sorry Ma—messed with your phone, but he didn’t drug Drew. Trust me, he is the last person in Miami to go near a drug like that.
Her cheeks felt hot and she stared at the table. She felt Drew’s intense gaze at her.
“What?” he nudged.
“I’m not going into detail because it’s not my story to share, but you have to trust me that Javi would not drug anyone’s drink.” Her brother’s voice rang of conviction, and she’d always known Javier had some tragedy in his life. A tragedy she’d never had access to.
Slowly, she raised her head and met her brother’s gaze. “All right. I believe you.”
Drew was frowning. “I’m willing to trust you, but it opens up the huge question. If Javier didn’t drug me, who the hell did?”
“Sta
cey,” Cat said. “Ring any bells?”
It was eleven o’clock and he and Olivia were at OXCA. Both his mother and Olivia’s parents had worried that the two of them were going clubbing after their recent hospital stays, but they’d both insisted. They’d promised no dancing, no drinking, and home by midnight. They were regular Cinderellas.
“Stacey?” he asked. Cat had come over to their table in the VIP section and said she had news.
“You dated her,” she explained. “Apparently, she really liked you. Really, really liked you.”
He winced, because he could already tell where this was going, and so could Olivia, like watching a car run a red light, knowing traffic had already started moving. Bam.
“She did it,” Olivia guessed.
“She has a big sister,” Cat said.
“Amber,” Drew said.
“Bingo.”
“How did you find all this out?” he asked.
“Remember, I worked here before I married the owner. The girls on your team trust me.”
“And they don’t trust me and Ian?”
“They do, but I didn’t think any of them were going to be knocking on your office door, so I’ve been hanging out with them. Doing my makeup in their break room. Stuff like that. Anyway, Fatima told Gabby who told me that Amber was always talking shit about you. Said you were a manwhore.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Olivia said, but he knew she was teasing. He leaned over to kiss her cheek, then turned back to Cat.
“That’s why she always acted as if she hated me?” Drew said.
“Probably. Anyway, Amber felt protective of her sister and got a job here to find a way to mess with you. She hinted that as a bartender she had a lot of control over people. Fatima didn’t understand what she meant, and she also wasn’t working the night you were drugged. She only thought to mention it today when I told them what had happened. The dancers and waitresses here are always on the lookout to protect the female guests here from men, but it never occurred to them to protect you from one of them.”
“Who could blame them? It never occurred to me either,” Drew said. “I thought she was a bitch.”