Winner Takes All (A Full Length Erotic Romance Novel) Page 18

  “You feel like heaven,” he murmured. His fingers sank into her.

  “Oh!”

  Her slickness easily welcoming him, sucking him in. Damien's mouth left her breasts, slid down. Settled between her legs. He pushed her onto the blanket, on her back. And he feasted. Leisurely, hot, intent. His mouth surrounded her throbbing clit, sucking the hot bud into his mouth until she gasped, the breath shuddering in her throat, fingers digging into the blanket. Delight rippled through her. Heated her even more. His tongue dipped into her pussy, fucking the slick wetness while a finger probed her ass.

  “Oh God!”

  The hot and wet sounds of his lust made music in the night. Her gasps of delectation. His moans of appreciation and hunger. The beginnings of an orgasm coiled in her belly, whipped inside her, lashed her from breast to clit. Sasha's eyes flew open, lashes fluttering frantically at the dark sky while her pussy clutched and spasmed in the fulfillment of her desire.

  Slowly, Damien drew his mouth away from her, kissed her thighs. He lifted his head.

  “Delicious.” His blue eyes sparkled in the candlelight.

  She laughed, breathless. Satisfied. Languorous, her body still buzzing from her orgasm, Sasha reached for Damien’s zipper. But he kissed her hands and pushed them away, lay his head back down in her lap. Within moments, his eyes drifted closed.

  Poor darling. He was more tired than she’d even realized.

  Sasha smoothed her hand over his forehead, threaded her fingers through his hair. She smiled as his breathing slowed. His hair was soft between her fingers, his scalp warm and fragrant from a recent shampoo. He slept. And Sasha allowed the beautiful peace of the night to soothe her. The cicadas, wind whispering through the rose bushes. The hot and sweet scent of the flowers perfuming the night. Candlelight flickered over Damien’s sleep-softened face, his hand that rested over hers.

  The world wasn’t a friendly place. But in that moment, with her lover sleeping in her lap and with starlight above their fragrant garden and candlelight glinting over them, the troubles that had seemed overwhelming mere hours before simply faded away.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  The woman walked into Damien’s office and closed the door behind her.

  “Come in.” Damien welcomed her with a wave of his hand toward the pair of chairs in front of his desk. He waited until she sat down in the chair next to the one Sasha had already claimed.

  The woman was tall, almost aggressively beautiful with her skin the color of tobacco, her large almond eyes, and short hair cut close to her scalp. She walked like a woman who knew she was beautiful but wanted to be seen as strong and intelligent, hiding her femininity behind the barest minimum of makeup, a plain pants suit in a black polyester blend, flat shoes. Sasha sat down in the chair next to the woman, her hands twisting in her lap. The woman was an investigator with the state police. Mia Lara.

  The woman with two first names looked first at Damien and then at Sasha. “As you may have noticed, Mr. Taylor, Ms. Cormick, my colleagues have all left the premises.” Ms. Lara’s hands rested in her lap, unperturbed. “The investigation has concluded and we found no wrong-doing on Ms. Cormick’s part. Someone went through great pains to make this look like she was the criminal but they were sloppy and their work was discovered.” The woman paused. “Even the doping of the horses turned out to be unrelated to Taylor Stables. The race horses discovered with the drugs in their systems had passed through your stables but had been tampered with after they left here.”

  In her chair, Sasha sagged with relief. She pressed her hands against her stomach that had been tied in knots in the three and a half weeks since the investigation began. Damien had had faith but she had steadily lost it when one of the investigators had questioned Sasha about her past and about James. A past that was more transparent than she thought. The questioning hadn’t been unkind, but she’d felt exposed. Endangered. But now, there was this tremendous relief.

  She exchanged a glance with Damien who gave her a reassuring look before giving his full attention to investigator Lara.

  “Thank you, Ms. Lara. I appreciate all you’ve done while you were here. I won’t say that it was good to have you here—” The woman smiled at that. “—but it’s a relief that the entire misunderstanding has been cleared up.” He looked at Sasha. “Ms. Cormick is an incredible woman with nothing but honesty and integrity. It pained me greatly to see someone try to drag her and her reputation through the mud.”

  “I’m glad things worked out to your benefit sir. You will get an official report of our findings by the end of the month.” She stood up and shook Damien’s hand.

  “Thank you, Ms. Lara.” He nodded, gave her one of his warm smiles.

  The woman shook Sasha’s hand too before she turned to leave. Even after the study’s door closed, Sasha sat in the chair, still dazed. The nightmare was actually over. It was finally over. When Damien came back from walking the woman to the door, he knelt before Sasha took her hands in his.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, scarcely able to believe that just that quickly, the investigation was over. They hadn’t taken her away. They didn’t call her a liar. The job at Taylor Stables was still hers. She trembled with the relief of it.

  “I can barely believe it,” she said with a breathless laugh.

  “I can. I told you everything would work out. The truth trumps a lie on most days.”

  Sasha dropped her head that suddenly felt almost too heavy for her neck to carry. “Thank you for believing in me.”

  He brushed a thumb across her cheek. “You don’t thank the sun for shining or the rain from falling. These things simply happen because they were meant to. There’s nothing to thank me for.”

  She smiled shyly at him. They stared at each other for long moments, the feelings welling up inside Sasha like a hot and undeniable spring. I love you. The words hovered just behind her teeth. But she did not say them. Did not want him to think she only said the words because of what he had done for her. Instead, she leaned down and kissed him, closed her eyes and felt thankful with every fiber of her being.

  Damien stood up, wrapped his arms around her. “Now that that is taken care of, we need to attend to another matter that has been long overdue.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  The noise in the stands was nearly deafening. Hundreds of people cheering for their favorite horse or jockey. Most of them on their feet, racing forms clenched in their waving fists as they stared out onto the track. Sasha hadn’t been on this side of the railing many times in her life. Looking out over the sea of desperate humanity, she much preferred being on a horse than being ridden by whatever demons of addiction some of these people obviously had strapped to their backs.

  Beside Sasha, her brother James, like most of the people nearby was on his feet. His face was flushed, his pupils dilated, his clothes rumpled. Another man being ridden by a demon. Sasha didn’t know if it was just gambling, drugs, drinking or the poisonous combination of all three. All she knew was that James had been taken over by his demons long before they had left Tennessee. And long before he had gone to jail.

  “Fuck that!” Her brother slumped down into his seat, slid her a narrow-eyed glance. “That fucking horse must have been drugged or something. He was a damn winner before.” He tore up the sheet in his hand, scattered the bits of paper at his feet.

  Sasha looked up and around her, realized that he wasn’t the only one pissed off and raining useless bits of paper around the stands.

  “So what’s up, sis?” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out and lit up. Gray smoke leaked from his nostrils. “Why did you want to meet up with me? You missed me?” He laughed. “You want to put a little more on top of my allowance?” His teeth flashed as he laughed again. Her brother stretched out as much as the small plastic seats would allow, propping up his elbow on the back of the empty seat to his left.

  Now it was Sasha’s turn to give a narrow-eyed look. Alth
ough it was a good question. Damien was ready to go ahead with his plan to get James off her back, a plan she knew included the police. But as much of an asshole as her brother was, as much harm as he’d done her in the last few weeks and over the years, she didn’t want to be the cause of anyone going to jail. Even with his visit to Damien’s study that had infuriated her enough to want to kill him, she still wanted to...to give him a chance to leave her life in peace and with his freedom.

  “I wanted to talk to you about what you’re doing.” She took a breath. “You have to know this is wrong. No good can come from it.”

  A puff of smoke left her brother’s mouth as he laughed at her. “Are you joking?” He leaned out of the seat to look at her. “Do you see the car I’m driving? Do you see the clothes I wear and the bitches I fuck with?” He made a boastful noise. “All this and I don’t work for it. Louisville is no New York, but I can still managed to get some good pussy and other sweet shit at any hour of the day there. It’s all good, sister.” he chuckled, took a drag of his cigarette. “At least it is for me.”

  Sasha clenched her jaw. “Have you always been such a fucking leech? Why don’t you just do your own work for a change and stop hurting everybody in your life.”

  His hard eyes found hers. “Better I knife them before they get a chance to stick me,” he said.

  Sasha tightened her fists in her lap. “This is not fucking prison!”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, sister. We’re all in one sort of prison or another. And in prison the rule is always ‘get them before they get you.’ I know that. I believe that.” He sucked on his cigarette, blew the smoke in her face. “Now, give me some fucking money or get out of here. I don’t have time for any of your shit.”

  Sasha wanted to knock some sense into him and show him that this didn’t have to be his life. But looking at him, she realized for the millionth time, probably, that he didn’t want to do anything different. He had thrived in jail. There, he was sucking sustenance from the system, from taxpayers. Out here in the world, he was sucking everything out of her. She sighed.

  “Fuck you, James. No matter what happens, don’t say I never tried to help you.”

  Then she stood up, and left.

  Out in the parking lot, she got into her little white Honda and drove back to the restaurant a few blocks away where Damien was waiting for her. The sun was high and warm overhead. Sunday afternoon traffic plentiful on the popular strip of restaurants and clubs. The smell of the river floated in through the open windows, mossy and rich. When she walked into the small diner, the bell above the door rang and her lover, seated near the back of the small eatery with a newspaper spread out before him, looked up at her with concern on his face. He put the paper aside as she approached the table.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  Sasha shook her head. Wondering why she even thought she could change her brother’s mind about what he was doing, especially when he’d been on this same path for most of his life. Taking advantage of the weak. Always lurking in the shadows to take what others had worked for instead of working for anything himself.

  “Okay,” Damien said. “Then we’ll go see my contact in the police department tomorrow.”

  She bit the inside of her lip and nodded. There was nothing more she could do for her brother. He had brought this on himself, had gone against blood in a way that she could never imagine, and now she would pay him back for all the things he had done to her.

  “Tomorrow,” she said.

  The next day, she and Damien talked to his contact in the Louisville Police Department. A lieutenant in the Criminal Investigations Department. He was tall and thickly built as she’d expected, but handsome with an intelligent face and a kind manner. Sasha huddled at Damien’s side in the cold and official looking office, her hands clenched into fists in her lap. She told the officer everything. About her family. About James. About the money he’d extorted from her.

  “We want to put a stop to what her brother is doing,” Damien said. “I want him in jail so he can’t hurt anybody again, but I don’t want this to come out in the news, Chet.”

  The lieutenant nodded. His ice gray eyes moving to Sasha. “I understand. Getting him off the streets and out of her hair is no problem. But the other thing, keeping this under the radar, will take some doing.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Damien said. “But I don’t care what it takes, I need this done.”

  The police officer nodded. “I’ll put someone on this today and you’ll hear from me in a couple of days. Have your lawyer get in touch with me.”

  “Excellent. Thank you.” Damien stood up to shake his friend’s hand. “I won’t forget this, Chet.”

  The police officer chuckled, a rusty sound as if he wasn’t used to laughing. “Neither will I.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The hotel restaurant felt like they were on top of the world. The Rivue restaurant atop the Galt House Hotel slowly rotated as Sasha and Damien sipped their after-dinner drinks nestled in their private corner of the 25th floor establishment. Breathtaking views of the city by starlight—the Ohio River shimmering and dark but brilliant with spots of light reflecting the buildings. The breathtaking arches of the Kennedy bridge across the water. The high rises that Sasha was used to seeing looming over her but from the rooftop restaurant were at eye-level or lower.

  She drew in a deep breath, enjoying what felt like the first free breath she had drawn in months. Across the table from her, Damien sat with his half-finished glass of single malt scotch, watching her. They had had a long and leisurely dinner, a celebration of Sasha’s freedom from the twin tyrannies of her brother’s extortion and the false doping allegations. The meal they had shared was one of the most delicious Sasha had ever eaten – fresh seafood, tender pasta, intoxicating wine. All enjoyed with Damien across the table making her laugh with his wry humor, encouraging her to try new things on the menu. “This chocolate torte is nice. Try it,” he’d said, lifting the fork to her mouth, his blue eyes bright with tenderness.

  She’d tried everything he put in her mouth, tasted the flavors that had taken on an even more delicious quality for being shared with him. Creamy risotto fritters. Lobster bisque. A medium rare New York Strip in a rich port wine sauce. Fancy French fries with an actual French name.

  Now dinner was done and they sat with their after-dinner drinks enjoying the view of the city that was slowly revolving outside the glass walls of the restaurant. It felt almost surreal. The simplicity of it. The pleasure.

  “I can’t believe the craziness is all over,” she said.

  The hot apple cider spiked with bourbon and green apple schnapps had relaxed her even more than the meal and Damien’s company. She felt warm and nearly boneless with the simple bliss of their evening together.

  “It is,” Damien said. “Your brother is going away for a long time. He won’t hurt or bother you again.”

  Sasha lowered her eyes, torn between relief and regret. But she had done what she had to. Now it was time for her to enjoy the peace of mind she had been lacking for far too long now.

  “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, Damien.” She reached across the table for his hand, took it in her own. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you with the story before things got so far out of hand. I just—” She sighed, thinking of all the insecurities that had plagued her since fighting her way from the group home and to being a woman able to care for herself, a successful woman who had always been looking back and expecting her past to catch up with her. “I just never imagined that I could rise above my past.”

  She’d already told him about her parents, about the group homes she’d endured, how she had made her way into his life. He’d only supported her even more because of her honesty.

  “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you now, Sasha. Your past means nothing to me except that made you exactly the kind of woman you are today. The perfect one for me. I know your life had been hard before now, and your
brother brought it all rushing back to you. But believe me when I say that knowing these things changes nothing about how I feel about you.”

  Damien’s fingers curled around hers on top of the table. His lashes fell low over his eyes, their shadows fanning across his cheeks. “I love you, Sasha. All of you. Every part of you.”

  She stared at him in astonishment, aware that her mouth had fallen open. Even though she loved Damien, had fallen in love with him, deeply and irrevocably weeks before, she never dreamed he would feel the same way. Never.

  “You do?” Of all the dismissive or flip things she wanted to say, that was not one of them.

  “Of course I do.” He smiled gently, caressing the backs of her palms with his thumbs. “It’s not every woman I allow into my bed, you know. It’s not every woman I go through such lengths to protect.” He paused. “You’re like part of my family now. A part that I can’t see myself without.”