Page 38 of Cruel Paradise

There’s a beat of silence. “Damn, is shestillthere?”

“Kirill.”

“Right. Not my business. What I said was,Adrik is here.”

My fist tightens around the phone and I sit up straight. “Inmyclub?”

“Yup. Spoke to Venus. Apparently, he’s been here about an hour.”

“Is he causing trouble?”

“Nah. He and his entourage took one of the VIP booths on the balcony. Seems pretty innocent so far.”

I snort. “Nothingwith that slippery fuck is innocent. Has he seen you?”

“Doubtful. I just got here.”

“Good. Keep your eyes on him. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

When I turn back around, Emma’s eyes are closed and a soft, half-formed smile is spreading on her face. I did tell her to make herself comfortable. But she’s looking a little too comfortable right now for my liking.

I grab her clothes off the floor and fling them onto the bed. “Get dressed.”

Her eyes blink open. “Huh? What? Right now?”

“Do I need to remind you of the rules of our contract?” I ask icily.

She grimaces and reaches for her clothes. “You and that contract,” she mumbles to herself as she pulls her panties back on.

My dick, which is exhausted after almost two hours of the most vigorous sex of my life, still lurches upward enthusiastically.

Emma notices and lets out a surprised little giggle. I silence it with a glare, then pull on my pants and zip myself up. “Quickly.”

She bends to put the skirt on and her hair curtains her face, hiding her expression. I have no idea if she’s resigned or irritated at the unceremonious end to this night.Not that I should even care either way…

“My driver will take you home.”

She glances at me, her lips parting. I wait for the question, but she just snaps her mouth shut and nods. She keeps to her corner of the elevator as we ride down.

I hold the doors open for her when we reach the main floor. “He’ll be waiting for you outside.”

She glances at me. “Aren’t you leaving, too?”

“I have to go down one more floor. My car’s parked there.”

“Oh. Okay.” She hesitates. “See you tomorrow, then?”

“Something like that.” I’m in a hurry, but I’m not a dick. Not enough to literally throw her out of the building no matter how much I need her to get going. And I’m lingering onlypartlybecause I’m still entertaining fantasies of fucking her up against the mirrored elevator walls.

She backs out of the elevator and the doors close on her piqued eyebrows. The post-sex high is dwindling slowly, but there’s a certain focused clarity that I haven’t felt in forever. Who knew sex was the solution I needed this whole time?

I slide into my Aston Martin Valkyrie and, in less than fifteen minutes, I’m pulling up outside Alcazar.

I toss the keys to Bruno, who’s on valet duty, and head inside. The entry passage is a dark, soundproof tunnel that swallows you into the belly of the club. When I emerge, I see bare walls, unadorned save for old black-and-white street portraits of New York City in its heyday, all exquisite mansions and palatial public buildings that marked the city’s Gilded Age in the late nineteenth century.

One of my bouncers, Jeremiah, stands at the end of the passage manning the arched metal door. Constant vibrations run down its heavy surface, caused by the state-of-the-art sound system that cost me a cool half-million.

Jeremiah offers me a deferential nod. “Boss.”

---