Lovers and Takers (30 page)

Jake walked into the home that always smelled of fresh chamomile.
 
He had seen Kara’s car parked in front of the house, so he knew she would be there.
 
And she was her usual flirty, sexy self.
 
But Roni was on his mind.
 
She had agreed to go to this dinner a week ago, before his indiscretion, and he was pleased that she didn’t back out.
 
But he knew Roni.
 
She said she would take it one day at a time with him, and that was what she intended to do.

“How are you, Kara?” he asked as he entered.

“I’m good, thanks.
 
Roni’s still putting on her makeup, but she’s coming.
 
Have a seat,” Kara added as she closed the door.

Jake walked over to the sofa and sat down.
 
Kara sat in the chair across from the sofa.
 
She was anxious to find out why it was that Jake invited Roni to the big dinner party, while Aubrey didn’t even mention it to her.

“So you and Aubrey were invited to the dinner party of the year.”

“That’s right.”

“With the Governor expecting to be there.”

“That’s right.”

“Aubrey didn’t even bother to invite me.
 
Which if fine by me.
 
I can’t stand our governor.”

“Me either,” Jake said, and both of them laughed.
 
It was times like these, when Kara was just being her funny, charming self, that he understood why Aubrey liked her.
 
“It should be an interesting evening,” he added.

 
“And if it’s not interesting it wouldn’t matter to me.
 
Since Aubrey didn’t invite me, anyway.
 
But he’s going, right”

Jake knew she was sniffing for info.
 
But given her closeness to Aubrey, he also felt she was entitled to the truth.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“Aubrey will be there.”

Kara figured as much.
 
When Roni told her about the dinner, Kara figured Aubrey would consider it too highfalutin for the likes of her to attend.
 
That was exactly
why,
she thought bitterly, that she had planted those cameras for Druce.
 
Once Varnadore believed that his perfect son was some master manipulator who lived life on the down-low, he would undoubtedly kick him to the curb.
 
He might just disown Aubrey and cut him out of his will, although Kara doubted that.
 
But he would get him out of his company, on that much Kara was certain.
 
And she would be right there to pick up the pieces.
 
Then Aubrey would see for himself what it felt like to be shunned and minimized.

Roni walked into the room just as Kara was about to offer Jake something to drink.
 
Jake stood up when he saw her. And even Kara would admit that her cousin looked good.
 
She wore a pearl-colored, form-fitting dress with a lace bodice, and heels with sprinkles of pearl throughout them.
 
Her hair was in an up-do, which highlighted her cheekbones and beautiful dark skin, and her skin exemplified a stunning contrast to her big, hazel eyes.
 
Jake found her magnificent to behold.

“Wow,” he said as she approached him.
 
“You look marvelous, Veronica.”

“Thank-you,” Roni said, in a measured, tempered tone.
 
“You look wow yourself.”
 
Then she noticed that strained look in his eyes.
 
“And tired, too.”

Jake exhaled and nodded.
 
“Very perceptive of you.”

“Another tough day?”

“Very.
 
Had to fire one of my senior vice presidents.”

Kara
 
looked
at him.
 
That was news to her.

“You fired him?” Roni asked.
 

“Yup.
 
Had no choice.
 
A very talented young man, but too much of a liability for me to want to bother with at this point.”

“Who was it, Mr. Varnadore?” Kara found herself asking, and Jake and Roni turned her way.
 
“If you don’t mind my asking.”

“You weren’t at the office today?
 
It was the talk of the place I assure you.”

“Yeah,” Kara said, “but I had to leave almost as soon as I got there.
 
An emergency came up.”
 

Roni looked at her cousin.
 
She had to have one of the worse attendance records at Varnadore Global.
 
Aubrey got on her case about it, and threatened to get rid of her if she didn’t shape up, but he had yet to pull the plug on her.

“So, I haven’t heard the news,” Kara added.

“It was Druce Lincoln, Kara,” Jake said.

Kara’s heart pounded loudly when Jake said that name.
 
But Jake and Roni didn’t wait around to hear it.

“Lock up when you leave, Kay-Kay,” Roni said as she and Jake said their goodnights and left.
 

And Kara immediately got on her cell phone.
 
What in the world happened, she wondered.
 
Did they find out about Druce’s scheme?
 
Did Druce or Troy tell Aubrey about her part in the plan?
 

She didn’t have Druce’s phone number, but she had Aubrey’s.
 
She phoned him repeatedly, to no avail.
 
But she knew what she had to do.
 
She had to get those cameras out of Aubrey’s apartment before he found out about them.
 
And that was only if he didn’t already know, she thought with horror as she hurried to the backroom, grabbed her purse, and hurried out of Roni’s house.
 
It didn’t even occur
to
 
her
to lock the door.

The banging on his front door was overkill to the max, but he knew who it was without even checking.
 
He just opened the door.
 
Pam flew inside and slammed it back, a stricken look on her face.

“Is it true?” she asked him.

He continued to pace his floor, a glass of liquor pressed against his forehead to calm his throbbing head.
 
“Hell yeah, it’s true,” he said.
 
“I got fired.”

“Aubrey fired you?”

“It wasn’t just Aubrey.
 
Maybe if it was I could handle it better.
 
But your old man was there, too.
 
It was both of them.
 
Both of them fired my ass.”

“But why?”
Pam
asked,
a look of sheer puzzlement on her face.

“Why do you think?
 
They don’t like me and don’t want me to be with you.
 
Your old man even told me that I was not only fired from his company, but he was firing me from being with you, too.”

“But that’s absurd!
 
I’m a grown woman.
 
I can be with whomever the hell I want to be with!”

But Druce wasn’t thinking about her.
 
Old man Varnadore held the purse strings in that family.
 
Pam didn’t control shit.
 
And now that Varnadore had kicked Druce out on his rear, any hope of Druce ever running Varnadore Global was out with him.
 
Pam didn’t mean a damn to him at this point.
 
“Tell it to your old man,” he said to her, “not to me.”

“But, Druce, you’re not making sense.
 
Daddy and Aubrey wouldn’t just fire you for
no
reason.
 
What happened?”

“Troy Brackston happened, that’s what!”

“Troy?
 
Your assistant?”

“No, Pam, some other Troy.
 
The man on the moon they call Troy, that’s who we’re talking about.”

Pam didn’t like his snarky attitude, but she understood it.
 
She’d be surly, too, if she’d just been fired.

She walked further into the apartment and sat down on the sofa.
 
“What did Troy do?” she asked him.

“He lied on me,
that’s
what he did!
 
He lied and said I hated your brother and was trying to set him up.
 
He lied on me.
 
And they believed him, Pam.
 
That’s what hurts so much.
 
I was about to become a member of their family, yet they believe some trumped up fairy like Troy Brackston over me!”

Pam was still confused.
 
But she could just feel Druce’s pain.
 
“What are we going to do?” she asked him.

Druce looked at her when she said
we
.
 
And he knew he had to keep her in his corner, at least until he got all of those assholes back.
 
He even managed to smile at her.

“I thought you were under the weather,” he said.
 
And she did look pretty beat up to him.

She was.
 
But when Kara phoned and said Aubrey had fired Druce, she put on some clothes and hurried over.
 

“What are we going to do,” she asked, “to get you back in?”

Druce looked at her.
 
She didn’t know her father at all. Because if she did, she’d know that no way was that man ever letting him anywhere near his beloved company again.
 
That was why Druce had to string her along.
 
He had to have time to think about it, and to plot and strategize.
 
He was never going back to Varnadore
Global, that
was for damn sure.
 
But he was going to do everything in his power to make sure Varnadore Global, and her father and brother right along with it, would never be the same again.

He went to Pam and pulled her fragile body into his arms.
 
“Stay with me,” he said.
 
“Then I know I can make this right.”

SIXTEEN

She felt his tongue before she opened her eyes.
 
When she opened them, she saw that Jake’s head was buried between her legs.
 
And he was slicing his tongue between her folds with licks that lapped up every inch of her moistness.
 
She moaned as he cupped her ass and drew her closer.
 
All she could see was his brown hair bobbing up and down, licking and then kissing and then sucking on her.
 
And when he lifted up, and realized she was now fully awake, he moved up further.
 

“Good morning,” he said to her.

“Good morning,” she said to him.

It was the morning after the big bash for the governor.
 
After the party last night, they had returned to Roni’s place and gone straight to bed.
 
Both were emotionally drained.
 

Jake leaned down and kissed Roni on her lips.
 
She used to hate when a guy would do oral on her and then attempt to kiss her, but she loved it when Jake did it.
 
Because it was his lips, his tongue, his mouth that dominated their kiss, not her moistness.
 
And when he wrapped her tightly into his arms, and continued to kiss her, she enjoyed it even more.

What was most enjoyable, however,
was knowing
that his mouth fuck was just the prelude to the real deal.
 
Jake was a careful lover, who took his pretty time.
 
But his carefulness always made her hunger for him to enter her.
 
This morning was no exception.

He kissed her and kissed her.
 
She loved his kisses, but her womanhood was throbbing.
 
And when he moved down and began sucking her breasts, nipple after ever loving nipple, she thought she was going to come from the sheer magnitude of his affection.
 
And then he kissed her one last time on her lips, and leaned up on his hands.

She could see that his cock was so aroused, too, that it couldn’t possibly engorge any larger.
 
He didn’t even have to hold it to guide it in, it was just that stiff.
 
All he had to do was point it in the direction of her pussy, and it guided itself deep inside of her.
 
He slid out partially, but not very far, as he now knew instinctively where her most sensitive ridge was.
 
And he slid along that ridge in a rhythmic glide that had her aching for more.
 

Jake watched her as she ached.
 
He watched her as he felt the same intensity she was feeling.
 
And then he leaned down again, wrapped her in his arms, and concentrated on the feeling, too.