My Wicked Valentine (Club Wicked 1) (15 page)

Her long hair stuck to her cheeks from her tears, and she
blew her nose again. After getting a hair band from her drawer, she quickly
twisted her hair up into a bun. Her gut churned, but she had to face her fear.
“I need to tell the rest of the staff.”

“And have all those men you have working for us Googling for
pictures of you? You know they’re all a bunch of perverts.” She snorted.
“They’d be running to grab the hand lotion double time. Just wait until your
man gets here.”

“You are foul, and he is not my man.”

“Girl, if he’s hopping on a helicopter to come to your
rescue, he’s your man.”

* * * *

An hour and forty-three minutes later, Rita buzzed Isaac in
while Lucia desperately tried to make herself not look like she’d been crying.
If Isaac said anything, she’d blame it on an allergic reaction to peanuts or
something. She dabbed a bit of concealer beneath her eyes, then quickly rubbed
it in once the elevator groaned to life.

Rita came up and squirted some breath spray in her mouth.
“Just be glad you didn’t wear mascara today.”

The doors to the elevator opened, and Lucia turned and forced
a smile on her face. At her first full look at Isaac, her smile became genuine.
Dressed in a gray suit and black overcoat that accented his broad shoulders, he
looked good enough to eat. Rita must have agreed, because she muttered
something complimentary under her breath as Isaac strode across the small space
to Lucia.

He cupped her face with his cold hands and leaned down,
brushing his lips across hers. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her mouth.
“It’s my fault this happened.”

She wanted to climb him like a tree, but his cool hands slid
over to her neck and helped clear her head. “How do you figure? I mean, maybe
it was the old party planner having her vengeance or one of the planners you
didn’t hire.”

Rita piped up from her desk. “Or it could have been one of
your workers that was pissed about you removing the candy machine.”

“Hey, they were leaving candy wrappers everywhere, and there
were chocolate fingerprints on our table linens.”

Isaac looked at Rita and held out his hand while curving his
other arm around Lucia’s waist. “Forgive me for being rude, Isaac O’Keefe.”

Rita came over from her desk with a definite sway in her
steps. She looked at him through her lashes, and Lucia swore the other woman
simpered. “Charmed.”

The only reason she didn’t claw the other woman’s eyes out
was because she knew Rita flirted with anything male but didn’t actually mean
it. It was just part of who she was.

“Would you mind giving us some privacy?”

The stunned expression on Rita’s face almost made Lucia
laugh. The sexy woman was used to men falling for her flirting, so to see Isaac
not even notice had momentarily hurt her ego. She gathered up her purse and
jacket before turning to Lucia. “If I’m getting booted out of here, I’m going
to get some coffee. Want me to bring some back?”

Isaac spoke before Lucia could. “No, I’m afraid Lucia is
going to be tied up for the rest of the day.”

Her cheeks heated, and Rita chuckled, then grew sober. “When
you find the motherfucker that tried to hurt our Lucia, you’ll make sure they
hurt, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

With that Rita stepped into the cab of the elevator and
closed the doors, leaving them alone in her less than stellar office. After
being in his penthouse in the sky, he must feel like she worked in conditions
that wouldn’t be out of place in a Third World country.

“Thank you for coming out here so quick. I hope I didn’t
interrupt anything important.”

“Nothing is more important than your happiness.” He turned
away and went over to her computer before she could read his face to see if he
really meant it or was just saying the right thing. “Can you pull up the e-mail
for me?”

She did, and his expression turned into a cold mask. It
seemed like the more emotions he felt on the inside, the less he showed on the
outside. By the time he’d finished looking at the pictures and reading the
message, his gaze was frigid enough to frost a snowman. “How do you want to
handle this? If you would like to resign as party planner, I totally understand
and will not hold it against you in any way.”

“Hell no.” Her temper flared, and she paced around the room.
“By giving in I’m going to be doing exactly what they want. Fuck that.”

He nodded. “Agreed. I’ve had more than my fair share of
blackmail attempts—comes with the territory—but being that I don’t give a shit
what other people think, they haven’t been very successful.”

“So what should I do?”

“Can you free up the rest of your day?”

“Umm, yeah, I should be able to.” She blew out a harsh
breath. “Sorry, my mind is all over the place. This just makes me so mad!”

“I understand. Let me make a few phone calls. While I’m
doing that, do you think you could call your parents and see if they’re
available for a short visit?”

“What are we going to tell them?” Her heart raced as she
imagined her parents’ reactions and their disappointment.

He sat down at her desk and looked at the screen with
distaste. “The truth. That someone is trying to blackmail you with these
pictures, and you aren’t going to let them. I’ll be there to verify the
pictures are false, and the images of you in that delicious bit of gold and
sparkle has been edited. Now come here.”

She reluctantly went to stand before him and startled when
he pulled her down into his arms, the small seat making his hold extra tight.
When he hugged her close, she couldn’t help the sniffle that broke through. “Is
this what it’s like to be rich? To always have to watch out for someone
following you? Someone looking to destroy your life?”

He kissed the top of her head and stroked her back. “No,
it’s not always like this, but yes, there are shady people everywhere that
don’t care who they have to hurt to get what they want.”

“Do you have any idea who could have done this?”

“Yes, but I don’t have any proof, and I don’t want you to go
kick anyone’s ass without anything solid.”

She tensed. “But if you do find out, you’ll tell me, right?”

“Kitten, finding out is not an if. It’s a when.”

They stayed like that for a few more minutes, him soothing
her with his gentle touch and her hurt soul drinking up his kindness. She’d
never been the type to rely on anyone to fight her battles, but she had to
admit it was nice having all of Isaac’s resources at her disposal. With a sigh
she climbed off his lap. “Okay, let’s get this day over with so I can go drink
a giant bottle of tequila and make it all go away.”

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and gave her a
wicked smirk that made her nipples peak into hard little nubs. “You won’t need
the tequila. I promise you that tonight I’ll make sure you’re focused only on
pleasure.”

Isaac drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of the SUV
as his private investigator, Edward Humphries, met them outside his office with
a large manila envelope. The clouds that had been threatening snow so far just
spit out a flake or two, but the forecasters had predicted a big snow later on
tonight. Edward was more than a few pounds overweight, but his mind and
instincts were the best. Dressed in a thick black goose-down jacket, he hurried
over to the SUV, and Isaac rolled down his window.

Edward’s thick mustache had a few melting snowflakes
captured in it. “Hello, Mr. O’Keefe. I’ve got the images you requested.” His
nasally Chicago accent always made Isaac think of football announcers for some
reason.

He took the manila envelope from Edward and nodded.
“Excellent. Any leads yet?”

“Not yet. I’m going through the mail system right now to see
if I can track that e-mail address back to anything we can use.” He looked
around Isaac to where Lucia sat in the passenger seat. “Don’t worry, Ms. Roa,
we’ll get the asshol—er, I mean, bad guys who did this to you.”

Lucia nodded, and Isaac’s heart hurt at the pain and
embarrassment on her face. “Thank you. Just so you know, that wasn’t really me
in those pictures.”

Edward smiled. “Oh, I know that. You’re much prettier that.
Besides, this is obviously a second-rate hack job.”

She leaned forward, and her shoulder pressed against Isaac.
“Really? I mean, it looked pretty legit to me.”

“Here, lemme see that.” Edward took the envelope from Isaac
and leaned farther into the open window. If Isaac hadn’t liked the other man so
much, he may have been offended by the way Edward ignored him as he bumped him
with an elbow while taking a picture out of the envelope.

Edward started to turn it around but stopped. “Okay, jeez, I
feel weird about showing these to a lady.”

Lucia said in a dry tone, “Don’t worry. I’ve already seen
them, Edward.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Isaac gently pushed Edward out the window and out of his
face. “Just hop in the backseat, Edward.”

Lucia chuckled while he rolled up his window. A moment later
Edward opened the door and sat in the backseat. They both turned to the private
investigator, and Lucia reached for Isaac’s hand. It warmed him somewhere deep
inside his soul, some place that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. He
liked that she already trusted him enough to instinctively go to him for
comfort.

Edward cleared his throat and dug through the envelope. “So
as I was say’n, I want both of you to take a look at this picture and tell me
what’s unusual.”

Isaac was barely able to restrain a growl of anger. He
glanced at Lucia out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be absorbed in
studying the image, but her full lips were tight. Finally she sighed and sat back.
“I don’t see it.”

Edward laughed. “Okay, I’ll give you a hint. Have you ever
seen a group of eight men that all have the same moles, birthmarks, and
freckles on their bodies all in the same place?”

Lucia gasped, and Isaac leaned closer. Sure enough, now that
he was looking for it, he could see that what was supposed to be a group of men
was indeed the same man shown over and over in different positions. He squeezed
Lucia’s hand. “Let’s go talk to your parents.”

While they drove to her parents’ home, Lucia continued to
look through the pictures. “God, I can’t believe I’m so blind! I mean, look at
this.” She held up a photo of her supposedly having sex with a woman wearing a
strap-on. “Look at the pixelation around the neck on this one and the shadows.
This is totally from a different picture.”

He hated to bring up the subject—she’d had enough shocks
today to deal with—but he had to tell her. “Lucia, did you wonder where they
got the clear pictures of your face?”

She put down the picture and looked at him with her eyebrows
drawn together. “What are you talking about?”

His GPS told him to take a turn, and he did before
responding. “I think they must have been following you around for at least one
day to get pictures of you. Do you recognize your makeup that day? Or maybe how
you wore your hair?”

She didn’t say anything as she stared at the pictures. The
color had drained from her face, and he hated the way her lower lip trembled.
“I think this was from yesterday. I wore those earrings, and I had on my bright
red lipstick, which I wore before the cake tasting at the bakery. After I ate
it was all gone.”

Impotent rage made his voice tight. “Edward is the best
there is at finding scumbags. I promise when we figure out who did this, they
will pay.”

She peeked through her fingers at him. “That isn’t code for
killing them, right?”

While he would have happily ridded the world of people who
would do something as shitty as blackmail Lucia, he didn’t want to scare her.
Evidently he’d taken too long thinking about his answer, because she groaned.
“That was a joke.”

He grinned at her. “I know. That’s why I didn’t answer.” She
gave him a skeptical look, and he pretended not to see it as he stopped for a
red light. “Really, I did.”

“You are a horrible liar, but thanks for trying to distract
me. So are these people going to be following me everywhere?”

“I don’t know. Edward and his team are going to sweep your
apartment tonight to make sure there aren’t any listening devices or cameras.”

She flushed and looked out the window. “Umm, can you ask
them to stay out of my bedside table, please?”

He had an idea of what was in her table just by her
reaction. He slowed down the car and eased his SUV into a parking space along
the curb. They were about a block from her parents’ townhouse, and he wanted to
hear this. “What’s in the table, Kitten?”

“Nothing.”

He sighed and turned the car off. “Well, I guess I’ll just
have to make sure Edward has his team thoroughly explore it.” He’d actually do
nothing of the sort, but he couldn’t help teasing her. A pissed-off Lucia was
better than a scared Lucia.

“Don’t you dare.” She turned to face him, and a dusky blush
spread from her neck to her forehead. “It is just some personal items.”

His dick began to swell. He leaned forward enough to smell
her vanilla-based perfume. “How am I supposed to pleasure you if you won’t
share what turns you on?”

She looked away, then back at him, her internal struggle
clear on her face. Something about his focus on her sharpened, and he
recognized that he was rising into his Master frame of mind. He didn’t stop
himself this time, because he wanted Lucia to get used to this facet of his
personality.

And truth be told, he loved being her Master, even if it was
only temporary.

He reached over the seat and deftly slipped his hand beneath
her sweater, easily locating her bra.

“What the fuck! Isaac, someone could see us.”

She tried to push his hand away, but her lips parted in a
soft gasp as he freed one of her nipples. The little nub immediately stiffened
against his fingers, and a renewed surge of desire burned through him at her
response. He rolled the tip between his fingers, pulling and extending her
nipple until she bit back a moan.