The Stand Off (5 page)

“Get away from him; he’s
dangerous,”
she warned herself.

“Your family is public domain;
all I have to do is look you up. Everyone knows you.” She took a small step
back.

“You don’t know anything.”

“I know enough.”

“What do you think you know?”

“I know you’re a womanizer who
doesn’t have respect for wedding vows. Speaking of which, let’s get back to the
governor’s wedding vows and how you violated them, shall we?”

“If you leak those photos, this
will get nasty. You should quit while you’re ahead, I am the last man you would
ever want to go to war with,” he warned her in no uncertain terms.

“Is that a threat?” She raised
her eyebrows dramatically.

“Yes.” He nodded calmly.

“Well your threats won’t work
either; you don’t scare me.” She unintentionally puffed out her chest and
raised her chin.

“You
should
be scared of
me.” He took another step towards her.

The only thing she was scared of
was her body’s unusual reaction to him and the way it seemed to be working
without her brain’s consent. She was unexplainably drawn to him and felt her
wayward body attempt to shift towards his direction. She couldn’t understand
her body’s horrific state of confusion nor could she understand the
overwhelming lust building inside.

“This is the man that is
trying to destroy The Music Hall,”
she repeated to herself as she cleared
her throat.

“I’m not scared of you, and
you’re foolish if you think that you can intimidate me into giving up that
building. I’ll keep digging until I find something that hurts. I will never let
that building go,” she vowed with enough passion to ignite his.

He wanted to continue arguing with
her, but he needed her to stop. His rage was tempting his lust and soon he
would lose the little control he’d been holding onto. She was as stubborn as
she was mouthy, and he was caught between shaking her and stabbing his tongue
down her throat to shut her up. He wanted to be the one who forced her to stop.
He wanted to take her down to the floor, slam his painful cock deep inside of
her, and fuck her until she changed her tone.

“Neither will I; it’s an ideal
location,” he said while trying to refrain from grabbing her. Her mouth would
be the death of her. “It’s not the building itself that I’m interested in; your
property is but a link in the chain. I want that whole block. As you know, a
few of your fellow business owners have already sold to me. Now I need the
biggest lot on the block… I need that building.” 

“You won’t get it without a
fight.”

“I would love to fight you,” he
admitted.

“Then I guess we’re at a
standoff.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

“We don’t have to be. You are a
beautiful girl. When this is over and the building is demolished, I’d be more
than willing to make it up to you.” He ran his finger down her cheek, but she
immediately slapped his hand away.

She knew by his reaction that no
one had ever reacted so negatively to his touch before.

“Don’t get pervy.”

“Pervy? I didn’t even mention
sex.”

“Then don’t get charming. It
won’t work on me,” she said with confidence.

“Are you saying that I’m
charming?” he asked as he raised his right brow.

“I’m saying that I’m immune to
the crock of shit that you consider sweet talk,” she elaborated.

“You’re even sexier when you’re
pissed.” He ran the tip of his finger up her forearm, but she swatted his hand
away again.

“Are you seriously standing here
talking to me about something as insignificant as my looks when I am trying to
save The Music Hall?”

“Your looks could never be
considered insignificant, not in the least. If you were smart, you’d use them
to your advantage,” he told her as he felt his lust mount to an unreasonable
level.

“Save your underhanded
compliments for the millions of women you swap saliva with and sell me back the
other part of my building,” she snapped back at him.

“I don’t swap saliva with
anyone,” he said with a frown. He had never been into kissing, it was too
intimate. Until Lux, he’d never felt compelled to use his mouth above the neck.

“Well whatever it is that you
do.”

“Do you want to know what I do? I
can show you.” He took a tiny step closer, and she instantly stepped back.

“All I want is for you to sell my
building back to me.” She ignored his last question.

“Why would I sell it to you? I
want you to sell the rest of the building to
me
. I’ll double the offer.”

“No,” she shook her head and glared
up at him.

If looks could kill, he knew that
he would be dead.…

“Why not? It’s a generous deal;
more than generous.”

“Because we worked too hard to
get that building where it is today. That’s
my
building.”

They’d redone that building with
their own bare hands, every one of them. Not to mention, she’d watched those
kids grow up and watched their talents grow within those walls. Every inch of
that building had a memory; it was an important part of their lives. Not to
mention that the Music Hall was the only good thing that had come from her father’s
traumatic demise.

Besides the building’s
endearments, there was also the issue with her mother. Her mother had an acute
case of agoraphobia and had not left that building since Lux’s father had died.
Her mother had originally vowed to go down with the house, and Lux feared that
she would make good on that threat.

She had no choice; her back was
against the wall. A lot of people depended on her, she had no other option; she
had to fight.

“Not anymore,” he said with the
hint of a smirk on his lips.

“You’re such an asshole.” She
shook her head, his side smirk was infuriating.

“I’m offering you a lot more than
what that property is worth. How is that being an asshole?”

“That building is worth more than
you could ever offer me. Believe it or not, Mr. Spoiled, rich-prick, some
things are priceless.”

“Nothing is priceless.”

“It’s too bad that you feel that
way,” she said with a slight frown.

“It’s foolish that you don’t,” he
shot back.

“Then I guess we’re still at that
standoff.”

She turned to leave, but he
grabbed her from behind, wrapping his thick muscular arms around her to hold
her still.

“You think that you can come into
my office, insult me, threaten to take my property, and then just leave
unscathed?” he whispered in her ear as he unconsciously pushed his erection
against her lush ass.

Lux found it difficult to breath.
She knew she should be fighting to get away from him, but the cage that his
arms formed around her was mind boggling. Her skin felt like it had ignited as
her body melted into the sensual feeling of being trapped in his strong arms.

“You think that you can just tape
up my building without repercussion?” she whispered breathlessly as she
attempted to compose herself and pull away from him.

“Yes,” he answered as he prevented
her from breaking his hold.

“Then so can I.”

“If you come back to my office,
unannounced, I will take that as an invitation.” He kissed the side of her neck
before letting her go.

She spun around to face him,
“Invitation for what?”

“Come back here uninvited, and
you will find out.”

“Call your men off, and I won’t
have to come back here.” She frowned and walked backwards to the door, keeping
her eye on Dean.

“It’s too late for that, I’m sure
the building is already blocked off with signs.” His smug smirk turned into a
full smile when she glared at him.

“I’ll remove every last one of
them,” she sneered.

“And my men will put them right
back up.”

“You won’t win,” she vowed.

“Do you want to bet on that? I
always win.”

She called him a vile name under
her breath before storming out of his office and slamming the door as hard as
she could.

Dean leaned back against his desk
with his arms crossed over his chest as he processed her words. No one had ever
spoken to him like that. He’d never felt such an urgent need to discipline
anyone in his life. Nor had he ever wanted to spend a little more time with
anyone. For some reason, he would have liked her to stay a while longer; he’d
enjoyed their little argument. He was caught between anger, lust, and
curiosity. He wanted to know a little more about Lux Hart.

***

Lux pulled in front of her house,
got out of her car, and stood before the building; her eyes immediately going
to the door on the far left.

“Asshole just doesn’t cover it,”
Lux whispered with a grimace on her face.

Just as Dean had promised, the
lounge entrance was covered with signs; they had also doubled the amount of red
tape. She could feel her blood begin to re-boil. She had taken the long way
home to try to calm down after that horrific meeting. Now she was back at
square one… and
now
she was out for his blood.

She stormed over to the entrance
and began to pull the signs down. She heard the loud familiar squeak from the
middle door, the Music hall entrance, and looked to her right to see her sister
coming towards her.

“They said that if we took it
down that they will just have to put it all back up in the morning,” Pixie
said.

“Let them, I‘ll just take it back
down. I will do this every day for the next fucking month!” Lux vowed as she
grabbed another long piece of red tape.

“I’ll help,’ Pixie smiled as she
began to help Lux take down the signs. They heard the middle door open again
and saw Graves, Kiki, and Lolo run over.

“We’ll help, too,’ Graves said.

“I take it your little impromptu
meeting didn’t help?” Kiki asked.

“No, it made things worse,” Lux
admitted.

“We’ll fix it; everything will be
okay,” Pixie hugged her.

Lux wanted to believe her, but
she knew that she would have to go to extreme measures to make everything okay
again.

It didn’t take long with the five
of them working together to clear away the signs and tape.

“Much better,” Pixie grinned as
she looked at the building.

“It’s a temporary fix,” Lux
reminded her.

“We’re going to need a lot of
garbage bags,” Lolo said.

“I have a much better idea,”
Pixie smiled widely.

***

Dean was trapped in the thought
of Lux and had become fixated with fucking her. He could not stop thinking
about their meeting and how close he had come to losing control. He was still
lost in thought as he locked his office and left for the evening. The curious
smile on his face disappeared when the elevator doors opened to reveal Sandy
Lens. She was a high level pest who could not comprehend rejection. She was a
statuesque, part-time model who moonlighted as a receptionist in the main
lobby. She was as beautiful as she was dull and as persistent as she was
irritating.

“Hi Dean,” she purred with a
sensual smile.

He stepped into the elevator,
intent on ignoring her, but that never stopped her from trying.

“I was wondering if you were free
this evening?” she asked.

“No,” he answered curtly.

“I have two tickets to the opera;
I thought you’d be interested. What about tomorrow night?”

“I’m busy,” he answered, while
staring straight ahead.

“Well what about next weekend? I
could refund the tickets and rebuy them for next weekend.”

“I’m busy.”

“Next weekend, too? I thought you
would enjoy the opera and maybe even spending a little time with me? I know we
got off on the wrong foot; I’d just like the chance to change your mind.”

Now he did look at her. He wasn’t
trying to be mean or insensitive, but she was starting to get on his nerves.

“I’ve told you more than once
that I’m not interested,” he said more firmly, thankful that the elevator had
stopped.

“But,” she began, but he hurried
out of the elevator. He headed straight to the parking lot, once again thanking
himself for not having sex with Sandy. Dean headed towards his car and stopped
dead in his tracks.

His car was covered in red tape
and Do Not Enter signs. His anger washed through him as he began to remove the
tape. He was pissed; Lux had gone too far this time. Not only had she barged
into his office, insulted him, and ruined his paperwork with the tape; now
she’d trashed his car.

He would not stand for this; he
needed to teach her a little lesson.

He jumped in his car and raced
over to The Music Hall.