Chapter 5

5

PENELOPE

W hat the fuck did I do last night? And why did it feel so damn good? I’ve been floating around all morning as if my interaction with Harker was a dream. But it was real. Dirty. And so fucking hot.

But the fear that I’ve pushed things too far creeps into the back of my mind. Sure, he’s expressed his interest, but does that mean he wanted things to move this far so fast? What if it changes his mind about me? What if I scare him off?

Am I even thinking any of this through? He snuck into my room to spy on me taking a bath. Why isn’t it ringing major alarms or signaling alarms or raising all the red flags on the damn planet?

There’s only one way to find out. And it’s making me increasingly uncomfortable.

I get out of bed and shake off the long sleep with a stretch. In the warmth and comfort of the enormous bed, I overslept until noon. I pull on a pair of shorts and a tank top and start making my way through the house.

Harker’s bedroom door is open, and I start there. I look inside. Empty. Unlike my room, Harker’s is ill-furnished. Apart from his bed, there’s a wingback chair in one corner with a small table beside it. On the table is an empty whiskey glass and a book.

The more I learn about him, the more I’m starting to realize he’s a man of very simple tastes.

I leave his room and make my way down the hall until I reach his office. The click-clack of a keyboard hits my ear long before I get anywhere near him.

I’m glad. At least I won’t be wandering around aimlessly trying to find him somewhere in this massive mansion.

“Come now, we’re both beyond that sort of language,” I hear Harker. “You’re a big boy. You chose to play my game.”

A muffled voice says something unintelligible through Harker’s cell phone.

“Benjamin, I’m going to keep this brief. If you and your fighter aren’t here tonight, I’ll have to come find you. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Harker pauses for the next response. I take this time to step into the doorway and announce my presence. Part of me wants to stay anonymous and eavesdrop on the conversation, but it doesn’t sit right. Harker has been nothing but honest from the very start, and if I want to find out what he and my family do, I should ask.

He won’t lie. At least I don’t think so. But if he does, it would be for a damn good reason.

“Absolutely not. You’re going to be here or I’m going to give you a refresher of what happens to the poor, lost souls who fuck with me. Is that what you’d like?”

Heat rushes to my cheeks and my heart flutters at the way Harker holds himself. Fear should be my reaction to a sentence like this. He’s threatening someone so carelessly. But instead, I find his primal, animalistic side more tantalizing than the gentle giant he showed me yesterday.

God, what’s wrong with me?

Harker sits behind his desk, and his eyes turn up to me as soon as I step into view. His hands still work the keyboard, while his mouth continues lashing into whoever’s on the other end of the call. He doesn’t stop just because I’m here, and I appreciate it. I don’t want him to be afraid to be who he is.

“Good. And if your dog takes a dive because you’re scared of his glass chin, you’ll make me very upset, Benjamin,” Harker says finally and kills the call.

I step inside and close the door behind me.

“Did I wake you?” Harker stops all work and gives me his undivided attention.

“No, you didn’t,” I answer with a smile, slinking my way with slow, bouncy steps as I approach his desk.

“Wonderful. I didn’t think about it when I got on the phone, and I can get a little loud when the need arises. One of the benefits of living alone, I suppose.”

“And you like it this way?” I walk around Harker’s table and pin my ass against the corner closest to him. His eyes instantly lock onto my exposed thighs hanging out the bottom of my shorts.

The way he looks at me makes my heart melt. Every time his glowing eyes find any part of my body, it’s like I’m the only thing he ever wants to look at again.

“I don’t trust easily, nor do I care to employ staff to occupy the empty space of this mansion. The few who do make it inside, will and have taken a bullet for me. There isn’t any reason to change what works.” His hand starts moving across the desk, inching ever closer to my thigh.

Each inch makes his breathing more unsteady.

“You know, I won’t mind if you just do it, right?” I nudge him along.

He accepts my invitation without a second thought. His hand clasps onto my thigh, and his rough fingers stroke my soft skin. A smile breaks across his rugged face, and he finally turns his eyes up to meet mine.

“Can I ask what your call was about or would you rather not discuss business?” I ask to further the conversation while his hand glides freely across my leg.

“You can ask whatever you’d like, Penelope. I won’t keep secrets from you. This is your home now, and you should be privy to what happens inside it.” He turns his eyes to the computer monitors, and mine follow along. Spreadsheets and graphs are scattered across the screens. It takes him a moment to realize I don’t know what I’m looking at, and he chuckles. “Tonight is a special night. I’m hosting a large, rather exclusive, get-together. Some very prominent families from Detroit and some rather unsavory sorts from elsewhere are coming to watch two great fighters duke it out inside my ring.”

Harker’s wearing a pair of gray tracksuit pants and a white top that clings to his body like a second skin. It doesn’t hide his incredible physique, and only seems to accentuate each chiseled muscle. And where his shirt shows off his washboard abs, the gray pants show off another thick muscle I became very acquainted with last night.

“And one of the fighters wants to pull out?” Curiosity killed the cat, as they say, but this is the closest I’ve gotten to seeing behind the curtain of my family’s industry.

“He did, yes, but he won’t anymore. The fight itself generates a fair bit of money to those who attend, but it’s also the perfect cover to conduct more serious business.” His eyes trail down my body, and his tongue darts across his lower lip as it settles on the wet spot between my legs. “We all play our parts to keep the wheels of industry turning.”

Harker cups my upper thigh in his hand. His fingers slide under the bottom of my shorts and brush against my ass.

“And what’s the serious business you’re going to do?” I half expect him to tell me he’s about to kill someone. Seems like the right kind of environment to do it.

“Laundry.” His hand continues snaking up my shorts, and I adjust on the table to let it ride up my ass. “All that money your old man and uncle like to blow has to come from somewhere.”

Money laundering. That’s the big bad thing he’s going to do tonight? A laugh almost escapes my lips, but I manage to fight it back with a light moan as his hand tickles its way against my bare skin. He starts by stroking before he takes a firm grasp on my ass cheek.

Desperate noises rumble out of his chest with every action.

Oh fuck. It’s about to happen, isn’t it? I was so lost in my intrigue of what was happening tonight that it didn’t even dawn on me. After my show in the bathroom, it’s no surprise that he’s going to want to take things further now.

Well, I might as well play along. There isn’t anyone else in the world I’d rather give my innocence to. Just him.

I throw my arms around Harker’s shoulders and crawl onto his lap. My knees straddle his waist, and his thick, throbbing manhood pokes against my pussy. Harker, in turn, squeezes my ass and pulls me tighter against his body. His eyes move from my body, lingering on the sparse cleavage sticking out of my top, and finally meet mine.

“Now, isn’t this the best way to start your morning?” he mutters before locking our lips together.

Our first kiss rocks my fucking world.