Page 13 of Allure
Walking away was the safer and saner option for both of them. There was no other course for them other than mutual destruction in mind and body. She barely survived him the first time they’d been together, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it this time around.
“I would like you to reconsider just leasing the property to us.” Her voice grew steadier, but she refused to look him in the eye. “If you can’t, I guess we’ll need to find another option.”
Joel replayed the video on his phone as he sat in his parked car. The image was in black and white, a setting he didn’t think to adjust in his haste when he originally set the cameras up. He just wanted to be able to watch Syra and keep tabs on her since she refused to answer his calls and text. She thought she could escape him, runaway as if he wouldn’t always be there, watching and waiting for her. He may have given her a long leash to explore and pretend they were over, but one tug and he would remind her of her place.
As soon as she answered my goddamn calls.
He ran his finger over the image of her body. His cock twitched beneath his jeans, stirring to life as she walked around her bedroom naked. The camera hid her imperfections, and if he squinted his eyes, he could almost imagine he was looking at the beautiful girl she used to be—the one with the fit and tight body and plush lips he liked to fuck and parade around because other men coveted what belonged to him.
A perfect woman with just enough wildness in her that called to be tamed, and Joel had been the one to put that wildness in a gilded cage. He’d known her since they were teens and understood her need for freedom, but it didn’t override her need to feel safe and secure—all of which he provided for her. It was why he didn’t stress about her need for separation from time to time. He understood her need to frolic and play in the world—taste a bit of uncertainty to know how good she had it with him.
He knew it was probably better to break that wild heart of hers, but then where would her appeal be? He didn’t want some docile and timid woman at his side. Where was the fun in that? Where was the ego stroke when men looked at her and their cocks got hard and their eyes filled with envy because he had tamed the untamable. He knew her appeal had come from that wildness that seeped off her skin like a siren’s song no one could get out of their head. He wanted to keep that, but watching her now through his cameras, made him think that might have been a mistake.
Her constant insolence as of late and serving him with divorce papers, as if he would ever sign them, made him laugh. She thought she could leave him with just a snap of her fingertips and he would let her go. No, she belonged to him, and knowing that she forgot her place by his side only pissed him off. She wasn’t meant to be Marco’s, the man who had tried to make his life miserable by overpowering him in business.
So greedy in your desires. I’ll show you how quickly you can fall.
“What are we doing here?” Christina or Crystal or Christa—whatever her name was—spoke up from the passenger seat. He’d almost forgotten she was in the car with him.
He’d met her on his morning run a couple of days ago and texted with her this morning with the intent of taking her back to his place to fuck his frustrations out on her, but he drove toward Bleecker Street to the building Marco had finally deemed worthy to sell after keeping it vacant for years. This was just a long list of buildings Garrison Inc had owned and kept vacant just so Joel couldn’t have it. It was petty, childish even, and in the end it would be Marco’s downfall.
He looked down at the video on his phone. She was no longer naked, her jeans and off-the-shoulder sweater covering up the body he liked to pretend was still perfect. She’d gotten softer as she got older, filling out in places he didn’t care for. It caused stretch marks and blemishes on what used to be a flawless masterpiece.
He watched her walk out of the frame, no doubt on her way to meet up with the whores she called friends. He wanted to continue watching her but knew he couldn’t be with her and set things in motion, but he always had eyes on her.
“Just checking out a new property.” He closed out the video. He could watch it any time he wanted; he’d done so already five times before he picked up his passenger.
“I told you I was in real estate, remember? I had my eye on this building, and it looks like the sale just went through.”
She smiled and clapped her hands for him. She was excited, but he could tell it was all for show. He wanted to tell her she didn’t have to try so hard; she was a means to an end and he would forget her name—which he already did—as well as her face, though she did look so much like Syra.
His phone buzzed in his hand, and he looked down at the incoming message.
Thought you should know. Syra is in Lockwood.
He smirked. As if he didn’t know where she was at all times; he read the rest of the message.
And look at who she’s meeting with.
There was a grainy picture underneath the text—the cheap phone had its benefits, but taking pictures was not one of them. He could barely see past the coffee shop window, but there was no mistake who he was staring at.
Syra and Marco were cozied up next to each other, and he’d have to be blind not to notice the sparks around them. He felt his jaw tick as he stared at the picture. It wasn’t the fact that she was playing this idiotic game of thinking she could escape him that angered him. It was the fact that she went back to Marco. Did she not learn her lesson the first time? He knew Marco was greedy, but this was going to cost him more than he knew.
The need to break something made his blood run hot, and when he looked over at his passenger who, at the right angle and in the right lighting, could pass for Syra, he knew exactly what he had to do.
Joel pocketed his phone and pulled out keys. He plastered a smile on his face, hoping it concealed the rage pumping through him. “Do you want to take a peek inside? I have the keys. I can show you what I have planned for the place.” He winked.
The woman smiled and was already out of the car with him hot on her heels. He had so many plans and things already falling into place; he needed to keep his head level. And while this woman was a means to an end, she was the perfect outlet to help him get him get straight so he could focus on Marco’s and Garrison Inc’s ultimate downfall.
“It’s not a good idea to take the deal, Marco, and you know it.” Syra repeated.
She was trying to drive the point home that them together would end in disaster. Marco might have believed her if her voice held steady and she looked him in the eye when she spoke. Instead she sounded less sure every time she repeated herself. She kept chewing her bottom lip—a nervous habit she picked up during their time apart, and it was wreaking havoc on his insides.
She was sitting too close to him. It would be too easy to reach out and touch and taste and take what he knew her body would willingly offer. He could see the light flush that coated her cheeks, could smell the coconut she used on her body, and could feel her knee brushing against his.
It was maddening how quickly she unleashed the part inside of him that was desperate to consume her—to hear her sweet pleas for something only he had ever been able to give her. His mind was swirling with all the ways he could get her underneath him, and it was made worse by the fact that she had been the one who inched his hand up her leg, bringing it closer to her pussy.
Maybe she was right.
