Worthy of Redemption (9 page)

“You need to be more careful,” he murmured, looking down at me.

I nodded gently in agreement and tore my eyes away from his. I started to untie Pete’s tie from his neck. “I better get this back to Pete before I forget,” I said, trying to ignore the fact that my body was pressed to his.

“You’re going to make me put on the hideous tie?” Kyle questioned. His arms circled around me a little tighter.

“You can go without one for the rest of the day. Just leave your shirt unbuttoned some. You’ll look like the hip boss,” I teased.

The elevator dinged before our floor, indicating that someone else was about to get on. Kyle immediately released me and took a few steps back. Feeling as if I had just done something
wicked; I turned back around and faced the doors just as they opened.

I wanted to pick Lily up from home that night, but she insisted on taking the train into the city
early so she could have her promised beer with Pete. I convinced her to at least allow me to pick her up from the bar they were at. When I saw her walking towards the car, I cursed to myself. Her hair was piled on top of her head, revealing those stars on her neck. Her eyeliner and mascara was laid on kind of heavy, but it made her look dangerously sexy. She had on a pair of jeans that she must have painted on, showing off her beautiful ass. It was a warm night for October, so her jacket was thrown over her arm. She wore a tight
Guns N’ Roses
t-shirt, perfectly outlining her ample breasts, and she wore a pair of knee high boots that had to be four inches in height.

“Hey,” she smiled at me as she climbed into the passenger’s seat. “Thanks for picking me up.”

I gave her one more head to toe look before pulling into traffic.

“No problem,” I said.

“You smell really good,” she said, sniffing the air near me.

I scowled slightly. “Do I usually smell badly?” I asked.

“No. You always smell good, but you smell
really
good tonight.”

“Thanks,” I said flatly.

We were silent for the rest of the trip to the club where we were to meet Marco. We went to the front of the line and I gave my name. The bouncer immediately let us in. I took Lily’s hand as I pulled her behind me in search of Marco. I found him a couple of minutes later on the second floor in the VIP section.

I greeted him with a handshake, but he pulled Lily into an embrace, lifting her off of the floor as if
they
were old friends. I tried not to scowl at them as I took my seat. Lily stood by the railing for a minute, looking down at the dance floor as she moved to the music. I had not realized I was staring at her until Marco said something.

“She’s really cute. Are you sure you’re not hitting that?”

Now I scowled as I looked at my friend. “No, I am not hitting that,” I said stiffly.

“Not even once?” Marco questioned.

Almost, but no
, I thought. “No, not even once, Marco,” I said tiredly.

A waitress in a very short skirt appeared to take our drink orders. Lily came back to our sitting area and sat down on the arm of the chair Marco was sitting in instead of the open space right beside me on the couch. I felt like physically moving her over, but I refrained.

“I want to dance,” Lily said, wriggling her ass. “Which one of you gentlemen is going to dance with me?”

Boldly, she took Marco’s drink from his hand and sipped it. Marco’s eyebrows shot up and he winked at me before looking up at Lily’s face, but not before he checked out her ass.

“I’ll dance with you, Bella,” he said. “Unless your boss would like to dance with you first.” He looked pointedly at me. Lily looked at me, also, but her expression was doubtful.

“Go dance,” I shrugged and flicked my hand indicating that they could run along.

No time was wasted as the pair walked off hand in hand. The waitress brought our drinks and put them on the table. I took my drink and got up to look at the dance floor.
Green Light
by John Legend just started as Lily and Marco moved to the center of the dance floor. They danced with some distance between them at first. Marco was singing the song to her; I could see his lips moving in time with the song. Lily bounced around a little more as she sung Ludacris’s part of the song to Marco. At the end of the song Marco picked her up with one arm and spun her around. Clearly, they were enjoying themselves.

I frowned and ordered another drink.

By the third song, there was no more distance between Marco and Lily. He grinded on her ass as she danced and when she turned around to face him, her arms looped around his neck and his hands slid down to her ass. They were practically screwing on the floor and it was pissing me off. I couldn’t explain why it made me so angry, especially since she had the tendency to anger me more often than not. Why should I care who she’s grinding on? But I did.

After another few songs, the pair came up stairs, breathless and thirsty. Lily ordered another drink since hers was now watered down. Even as she sat down on the arm of Marco’s chair, chatting with him, she didn’t stop moving her ass. When her drink came, she drank it quickly, anxious to hit the dance floor again.

“I’ll go with you,” I heard myself saying as I got to my feet.

She looked at me with surprise, but then shrugged. “Show me your dance moves, boss.”

I took her hand and lead her down to the dance floor. I don’t think I would have been able to watch her dancing with Marco anymore.

Lily was a little slower warming up to me than she was Marco. This pissed me off even further. When she turned her back to me to dance, I put my hand on her waist and roughly pulled her to me. I felt her gasp, but she didn’t stop dancing. I let the music flow through us and soon we were moving as one, her body flush with mine as we moved. Surrounded by other moving bodies and under the roving lights, it was hot on the floor. Beads of sweat formed on Lily’s neck. I couldn’t stop myself from putting my lips on her neck, right on those damn stars and licked away the little beads that had formed there.
She froze for a moment and then turned around, but kept dancing. She didn’t meet my eyes, but she didn’t move away from me when I grabbed her waist again.

When Sean Paul started singing
Temperature
, Lily loosened up again, dropping her ass to the floor with her dance moves, trailing her hands down my chest and thighs. When she turned around again, I was surprised that she bent over, pointing that beautiful ass in my direction. Surprised, but not immobile, I ran my hands up her back and moved them down as she stood upright again. My hands stopped on her ass. Completely out of line, I squeezed her ass before moving my hands back around to her tummy, holding her to me while we danced.

After a couple more songs of completely inappropriate behavior on my part, she stood on her toes and put her hand on my neck so that she could whisper in my ear.

“I need a break,” she said.

I nodded and took her hand and lead her back upstairs. Marco was talking to a couple of women as we approached, but then he sent them away with a simple wave of his hand.

Lily and I ordered another drink, before she excused herself to use the lady’s room.

“I saw you dancing,” Marco remarked with a grin.

“So?” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“So, are you sure you’re not hitting that?”

I scowled at him.

“Positive,” I said through a clenched jaw.

“But you want to,” he said.

“We were only dancing,” I snapped.

Marco laughed again. “Keep telling yourself that, Kyle.”

~~~

I made several mistakes during the night. The first was allowing myself to be bothered by Lily dancing with Marco. The second mistake was taking Lily to the dance floor myself and dancing with her the way I did. The third mistake was licking her neck, and the last mistake was enjoying every moment of it.

Lily was very quie
t during the quick car ride to the train station.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said quietly with her hand on the door.

“I expect you at work bright and early as usual,” I said coldly as I stared straight ahead. “Don’t use this night out as a reason to show up late.”

I felt her eyes on me, but I didn’t look at her.

“Trust me,” she said tightly. “I wouldn’t want to use my boss’s grinding on my ass and licking my neck as an excuse to show up late to work tomorrow.”

She threw the door open and had one foot out the door when I said “It was just dancing, Lily. Don’t make it into something it wasn’t.”

She paused for only a moment before getting out of the car and slamming the door. I powered the window down and called to her just as she reached the stairs for the train.

“Try to wear a more work appropriate skirt tomorrow,” I said.

Her face grew cold and stony before she turned away and disappeared down the stairs.

Lily was already at work when I arrived early the next morning.
She put my breakfast and coffee on my desk without a word and without even looking at me before walking out again. She stayed in her office for most of the morning until she had to bring me a stack of files.

“All of these need to be looked over and signed,” she said quietly as she placed the stack on an empty chair. “The priority files are marked with an orange dot.”

Again she didn’t look at me before walking out of my office. I picked up my phone, poised to call her back in, to make her look at me with those gray eyes, but I put the phone back down. She was my employee and I was her employer and nothing more.

I went back to work and tried to forget about the nagging little voice in my head that was calling me an asshole.

*
~
Lily~*

Donna Summer was the friend in my head, because she got it, she really did. I did work hard for my money, and he never did treat me right. The he in question isn't a person for me, though. The he in question is the universe and its infinite d
esire to consistently screw me over. First tragedy struck in the early summer. Then the bar burned down, quickly followed by my sudden homelessness. My employment under Kyle Sterling was hot and cold, because Kyle was hot and cold. One moment he was cold and telling me how much I suck as a human and the next he was grinding on my ass on the dance floor. The most recent proof of the universe’s hatred towards me was the loss of a part time, under the table bar job.

The bar was in a scuzzy neighborhood and the owner was a pig. I warned him several times not to touch me. Giving me a lousy paycheck at the end of the week didn't mean he could grab my
breasts. My knuckles were still bleeding from missing his jaw on my second punch and the palms of my hands were scraped from landing on my hands and knees after he literally threw me out. My foot, however, did not hurt after I kicked him in the balls.

Desperate to save money, I hiked through the city instead of taking any form of public transportation u
ntil I hit a PATCO station. The night wasn’t too cold; it was comfortable enough for a walk, even a million block walk. I was almost to the train station when some douche rag bum rushed me, shoving me into a brick wall and demanding my messenger bag. He had a nice utility knife that I'm sure he could also use to open bottles, cans of beans, and maybe clip his toe nails, but he chose to wave it in my face. I wasn't sure which was worse, the damn knife or his foul breath.

"You're not taking my bag, asshole!" I yelled in his
concealed face.

"G
ive me the bag or I'll cut your ass up," he said in a low voice.

I struggled against him, kicking him in the shin and punching at his back and arms. He shoved me hard against the wall and tried to rip the bag from me.

"Give me the fucking bag!"

"Go get your own bag, dirt bag!" I shoved at him and he stumbled backward.

"Hey!" A masculine voice shouted not too far away. "Hey, what are you doing to her?"

The rest happened very quickly. The douche rag, determined to get his prize, jabbed his knife at me, slicing my palm as I tried to defend myself. While I gripped at my bleeding hand, he yanked on the strap of my bag, knocking me to the ground in the process. He
jerked the bag off of me and took off. I got to my feet just as the stranger who had called out to us reached me.

Angry, furious, adrenaline rushing, I tried to go after the robber, but strong arms encircled my waist.

"What are you doing?" a familiar voice asked. "He just tried to kill you!"

"He took my bag!" I yelled, trying to thrash out of his arms.

"Is that bag worth your life? Hey! Calm the fuck down!"

Frustrated, but resigned to the fact that the perp was probably long gone, I settled down. R
eluctantly, the man released me.

"Are you
crazy
?" Kyle yelled.

"I'm not the one who just stabbed me," I snapped, holding up my bleeding hand. "So, no. I'm not the crazy one."

"No, you're the idiot who just tried to chase the guy with the knife that just stabbed you," he said, yanking his tie off. "Give me your hand."

I took a couple of steps back, holding my hand behind my back. "Why should I?" I cha
llenged.

"Do you want to bleed to death on the sidewalk?" He asked, scowling deeply.

"Look, I didn't ask for your help." I pointed with my uninjured hand. "And I'm not going to bleed to death, you ass."

"Fine," he said. He looked at me like I was street carcass and said "You're on your own."

I gave a small shrug and said "Fine."

He walked by me without another word. I moved into the light of the nearest lamppost to inspect my hand, praying it wasn't as bad as it felt. I couldn't afford a hospital visit.

I was relieved to see it didn't look too deep, but the cut ran from one side of my palm to the other. The bleeding wasn't slowing down and thanks to the dickless wonder that stole my bag, I had nothing to staunch the flow of blood. Maybe Kyle was right. I was going to bleed to death on the sidewalk. Thieves would pick my pockets and steal my clothes, leaving my body naked and at risk of being eaten by stray cats.

"I don't want to be eaten by stray cats," I murmured to myself.

I looked away from my hand when I heard footsteps. It wasn't safe for me to be standing alone on the street at this time of night. It wasn't even safe for me to be walking, clearly exemplified by the jerk who robbed me, but now I was a sitting duck – a sitting Lily.

"I'm not leaving you bleeding in the street," Kyle said, stepping out of the shadows. "Give me your hand
.
Now.
" He waited patiently with his hand extended.

"You're not wearing gloves," I said, feeling a little worn down by his evil stare.

"I'll wrap it up until I can get you to a hospital," he said, his tone flat and uncaring.

"I don't need a hospital," I said. "I just need it cleaned and bandaged."

“Maybe the police can convince you to go to the hospital,” he growled and I heard him mutter something about being stubborn.

“I’m not going to the police either,” I flared. “What’s the point? They’ll keep me there for hours looking through photos for a guy whose face I couldn’t see. It’s a waste of my time and theirs.”

He sighed louder than necessary. "Fine,” he snapped. “Give me your hand."

Reluctantly, I extended my injured hand. I bit my lip as he expertly tied another hideous tie around it.

“I really should go through your tie collection,” I said. “This is ridiculous.”

He eyed me with indifference before walking away. After a few steps, he turned around and glared at me. “Are you just going to stand there?”

Before I could object, he took my uninjured hand into his in a firm grip and began to lead me down the street. My heart pounded in his presence and under his touch and I could feel it in my injured hand as it throbbed in cadence with my heart. At the next intersection, we swung a right and walked a half a block closer to a group of bars before Kyle hailed a cab. He gave the driver an address in the city, not the New Jersey address I had left him at before.

“I just moved,” he said when I gave him a questioning look. “It’s not far.”

A few minutes later we were deposited in front of a high rise building on the riverfront. A doorman let us into the lobby where Kyle was greeted by name by a smiling concierge. Two guys in security uniforms sitting behind a tall desk nodded at us. Kyle barely acknowledged all three men before ushering me into an elevator and pressing the top button.

Of course he has to live in the Penthouse suite.

In the elevator, I tried to reclaim my hand, but Kyle held fast to it.

“Dude,” I said and looked from him to our hands and back to him.

Reluctantly, he released me and pushed his hands into his pockets.

“My place is m
essy,” he said. “I haven’t really unpacked yet. It may take me a few minutes to find what I need for your hand.”

I shrugged a reply and watched the numbers above the doors light up and tried to ignore the pain in my hand and the moody man beside me staring down at me.

The elevator came to a soft stop on the twenty-fifth floor and the door slid open. I followed Kyle out of the elevator and to one of two doors in the hallway. He unlocked the door and let me in ahead of him.

“Oh my god,” I whispered.

I had never been in a penthouse before, but even my imagination couldn’t come up with the greatness I saw in Kyle’s new home. There were boxes all over the cherry hardwood floors, but that didn’t take away from the beauty of the penthouse. The living room, dining room, and the kitchen all flowed together in a great open space. There were no walls to separate guests from their host and the floor to ceiling windows gave a breath taking view of the lit up Ben Franklin Bridge and the city beyond that. There was a bar on one wall, complete with all of the liquor I could imagine, glasses, and stools. It made my heart ache and I was itchy to go play with it.

As I moved
in a little further, I saw that there was a secondary living room area with a fire place and more comfortable looking furniture and a television. That room was partially closed off by one wall, but no doors. I quickly realized we were only on the first floor. There was a set of stairs near the second living room that I assumed led to the bedrooms.

“There is also a library and guest space at the end of that hall,” he said, poin
ting past the stairs. “The bedrooms are upstairs.”

“This is a lot of space for one person,” I murmured, turning in a slow circle as I looked around.

“I had chosen something smaller originally,” he said, moving in a little closer to me. “But this one became available. I really like the space.”

“I really like it, too,” I admitted before meeting his eyes. “But it’s pretentious.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but then he looked down at my hand. His tie was soaked through with my blood.

"This way, please," he said quietly.

I followed him down another hallway on the other side of the stairs to a bathroom that could easily have doubled as a bedroom. He put the lid down on the toilet and gestured for me to sit. He peeled the blood soaked tie off and dropped it in the trashcan.

“I would apologize for the tie, but the world is a better place without it,” I said and flinched when he put my hand under lukewarm running water.

“This could have been really bad, Lily,” he said with a big frown. His fingers traced over my scraped palms and then my bruising knuckles. “This isn’t from the mugger.”

“No. That’s from a wall,” I said pointing at my knuckles. I pointed at my palms and said “That’s from getting thrown onto a sidewalk. And that,” I said, pointing to the hole in the knee of my jeans.

Kyle’s eyes darkened before he kneeled to check out my knee. “Your knee is bleeding, too. Did that asshole at
Earl’s
do this?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know about
Earl’s
?”

“I know a great deal more than you think I do,” he said with anger. “When were you going to tell me you have
two
more jobs and that you were sleeping on someone’s couch in a slum house in Camden?”

I watched him with my mouth hanging open in shock as he worked on my hand. Every few seconds his intense eyes would bore into mine. I had to wonder what exactly he did know about me, how he found out, and how long he had known. I wasn’t a super private person, but there were many things I chose not to share with others. Some things were too painful to share with others – did he know about those things, too?

“Well?” he said, after I didn’t respond.

“I didn’t think it was any of your concern.”

“Anything you do that can affect your work with
me
is a concern of mine, Lily.”

“My work is not
affected,” I argued.

“The hell it isn’t,” he growled. “When you come to work exhausted, you’re u
nfocused and do shoddy work.”

“I don’t do shoddy work!” I exclaimed and stomped my foot like a little girl. “I’ve been working my ass off for you!”

“You can be better if you leave your bartending jobs,” he said, slamming a vanity door closed. “You and Mayson insisted that you were more than just a barmaid. You’re doing a hell of a job
not
proving your case.”

Incensed, I snatched my hand away from him and got to my feet. “Screw you, Kyle.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you would love that,” he said dryly as he easily pushed me back down into a sitting position.

“Don’t make me punch you in the mouth again,” I warned.

“I know you’re a badass, Lily,” he said, as he began bandaging my hand. “But I’m a bigger badass. Remember that.”

“Yeah, I know all about it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “How did you find out all of that stuff about me?”

“I have my sources.”

“Stalker,” I murmured. Then something occurred to me. “Did you just
happen
to be behind me when that asshole took my bag, or were you following me?”

“I didn’t start following you until several blocks before you got robbed,” he said casually.

“You
followed
me?” I yelled and stood up again.

Kyle pushed me back down. “You shouldn’t walk alone in the city at the hours that you do.”

I put my free hand to my forehead. “Oh my god. You’re crazy. You’re so damn crazy. The next thing I know you will lead me to some locked up room of pain and chain me to some kind of sex table.”

He looked at me with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t have a room like that, but I can make it happen.”