Selena's Men Page 5

  From the lateness of the hour she knew he’d probably already met with her partner. Probably already fell head-over-ass in lust with the gorgeous half-Spanish, half-Cajun woman.

  She snapped the curtain closed, shutting out the blinding sun and the green-eyed monster. “Did you need something, Malcolm?”

  “Do you know you answer a question with a question?”

  Selena’s heart skipped a beat at his deep, rumbled laugh. “Hello, Pot, said the Kettle. But to answer your question, no, I was up working, and time got away from me. I think I crashed around five this morning.”

  “I wanted to call and let you know I’ll be meeting with your partner in about an hour and just wanted to make sure you didn’t have anything you wanted to add before I give all the documents over. Since you are the majority shareholder I just wanted to double check.”

  “Tam has every bit as much power as I do.” The relief washed over her like a tidal wave.

  “That’s fantastic. I hope we can get together and I can thank you personally for your business. Your partner was almost hesitant to meet with me. It could give a man a complex if he had self-esteem issues.”

  “Ha. I’m sure it didn’t faze you one bit, Mr. King.” She laughed.

  “You wound me.”

  Again she heard laughter in his voice, and shivers raced down her spine. She trudged up the stairs and stripped out of her clothes. With the phone tucked between her ear and shoulder she turned on the faucet to her large tub, and added scented bubble bath before grabbing a large bath towel.

  “I don’t think there is a woman alive who has the power to hurt you.”

  Silence stretched so long and thick the tub had filled completely.

  “That is where you would be wrong.”

  She wondered at the sadness that had crept into his voice. “I’m sorry…”

  “Listen, I really was hoping I could meet you and thank you in person for the use of my company. I’ll tell you the truth and that is”—he paused—“you were my easiest client.”

  She stepped over the ledge into the garden tub full of bubbles and exhaled a loud sigh, happy to hear the eagerness in his words.

  “I’d love to meet you too, but I truly can’t right now. But when the club opens I’ll give you a VIP invite and expect you to be there on opening night along with your brother.”

  She picked up a sponge, and squirted her favorite body wash on it before lathering it up, running it over first one leg then the other. The swish of the soapy water sounded loud to her, but the soft cloth as it ran over her body made her forget she was on the phone.

  His next words jolted her back to reality.

  “Um, yes I…What are you doing right now?”

  “Oh. I’m just…Look, I need to go. Thank you for all your hard work. When I have the dates set I’ll make sure you get an invitation for yourself and a guest.” With a face that had to be bright red, Selena was more than happy he couldn’t see her.

  “You do know it always takes longer for renovations than what you’re quoted, right?”

  “Not in my experience. I already have the floor plans, plus the same contractor I’ve worked with several times. He’s never let me down or gone over budget.”

  He grunted. “That’s a miracle in itself. Are you sure we couldn’t meet before that?” He sounded so eager, but she couldn’t fit a social life in her calendar right now.

  “I really can’t, but I’m grateful for your quick work.” Regret was thick on her tongue.

  “It wasn’t all that hard. One quick inquiry to my brother, who was ready to get rid of some property, and there you go. Easy.”

  “I remember. You’re twins, right?” Oh, she’d always had a fantasy of her being the focus of two identical men. At least that had been her dream fantasy for a while now.

  “Yes.”

  He trailed off and when he said no more, she squirmed in the water. How could his voice alone excite her more than the physical touch of any other man? “I better let you go. I’ll send you an invite for you and your brother. You can each bring a guest if you like.”

  She hoped he brought a date. If he didn’t, she was liable to jump him right in the middle of her club. She closed her eyes, thinking about what he looked like. Her eyes sprang open when she realized she’d never actually seen him.

  The image of two identical, tall, dark men standing side by side sprang to mind. It was so real her nipples ached for their attentions.

  “That would be great. Oh, and Selena…” He paused until she thought he wasn’t going to say anything. “Make sure you wash all the good parts in between.”

  His words flowed over her like liquid honey, making her pussy clench. Sitting with her mouth open and the phone gripped in her hand, she realized he’d already hung up. “Damn the man.” She laughed and did just as he instructed.

  Trailing her hand down her stomach, unerringly zeroing in on her pleasure spot, Selena rubbed and pressed, bringing herself to a quick and explosive orgasm that left her wanting more.

  Chapter Five

  Malcolm hung up the phone and adjusted his cock. He knew the vixen was in the tub while talking to him. When she’d first answered the phone, her already husky voice sounded even sexier and when she’d muttered, “Fuck me,” his cock had hardened immediately. Ready to drill.

  Her assistant Tamara was due in less than a half hour and the last thing he wanted was a VHO, or a visible hard-on.

  “Malcolm, there is a woman here to see you.”

  “Who is it, Sharon?” Malcolm asked his secretary.

  “Her name is Tamara. She said you were expecting her.”

  “Send her in and see if she would like a drink.”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job, Mal,” she groused.

  “I would never do that, please forgive me. Go ahead and give yourself a raise, would ya?” He’d been trying for years to get her to do just that, and it had become a standing joke between them.

  “Shut up. I’m sending her in. And Mal.” She waited a beat. “Be nice, please.”

  “I’m always nice.” He was still laughing when Tamara entered his office, ushered in by Sharon. He knew she wouldn’t be able to see him properly until her eyes adjusted. With his back to the bank of windows and the sun streaming in, the newcomer would be temporarily blinded. A trick his brother had taught him.

  He walked around his desk and reached his hand out to shake hers when she gasped.

  He was shocked at her reaction to him. “Are you okay?”

  “No…I mean yes, I’m fine. Sorry.” She gripped his palm in a surprisingly strong hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  The nervousness was clear to see by the way her pupils dilated. He admired the way she masked her emotions and got right down to business. Malcolm led her to the chair in front of his desk, before he strolled behind and sat back down. “Would you like me to go over the details?” She was tall for most women. He wondered if Selena was as tall.

  “No, I’ll just read them real quick.” She bent her head and scanned each page, nodding her head and murmuring to herself. She raised her head and held her hand out for a pen. She signed her name and passed the papers back to him, carefully avoiding any contact with his outstretched hand.

  He double-checked the documents. “Looks like everything’s in order. My brother said the contractors have already begun the remodeling.”

  She pushed back, and he stared as she gave a dismissive wave.

  “Yep, they work quickly. Thank you, Mr. King. Selena will be very happy.” She tried to smile, but to Malcolm it looked more like a grimace.

  “Are you feeling okay? I mean you look kinda ill.” He instantly regretted his choice of words when her back snapped straight and she looked him in the eye for the first time since entering.

  “I will see myself out. Thank you for your time.”

  He stood as she nearly ran out the door with the papers clutched to her chest. Sharon looked up, but with a puzzled look and a qui
rk of her lips, she said nothing.

  “Shut up,” Malcolm mumbled.

  She raised her hands, palms out, and quickly turned them, giving him a two-finger salute.

  “Will you marry me, please?” Malcolm asked and got down on one knee by her feet. He gazed at her through the screen of his lashes, causing her to laugh. He leaned back on his haunches and dropped his shoulders in mock defeat. She slapped him upside his head and gave him a shove.

  “Get up, you loon. What did you do to her?” Sharon asked.

  “I’ve no clue.” He stood in one fluid motion and pecked her on the cheek. “Do you think they’re more than partners in business?” He wagged his eyebrows.

  Sharon grunted. “Just because that woman didn’t fall at your feet doesn’t mean she’s a lesbian.”

  “Women do not fall at my feet.” He saw the way Sharon’s eyes bugged open and amended his statement. “Hey, that wasn’t my fault, but that’s not why I asked. You never fall at my feet. Hell, I was just at yours, asking you to marry me.”

  “Pfft. I’m old enough to be your mother.” Sharon turned her back to a smiling Malcolm and answered the phone. Summarily dismissed, he walked back into his office. Old enough to be his mother? Yeah right. Sharon may be on the upside of fifty, but he was on the upside of a millennia.

  Malcolm sighed, adjusting his pants again. Selena Ramos made his dick hard with just the sound of her voice. But picturing her in a bath naked, he shifted again, trying to get his massive erection somewhat comfortable. He’d call his brother and see if the contractors were on the up and up, since the last of the paperwork was done. He also wondered if Max ever got hard just hearing a woman’s voice, and decided he was so not gonna ask him.

  “What’s up, buttercup?” Max asked.

  Malcolm pulled the phone away and double-checked if he dialed the right number. “Why the fuck are you in such a good mood?”

  “Because it is a sunny day and the local baseball team just won.”

  His brother had moved to Kansas City several years ago, which wouldn’t be bad, except the local sports teams were not the best. “Ye gods, tell me you’re not becoming a Royals fan.”

  “What is wrong with my home team?”

  “First off, they are not your home team. Second, they have the youngest team in the sport and third…” Malcolm ticked off each point and waited a beat before he continued. “Third, they fucking suck.”

  “You better shut it, brother, or I’ll make you eat those words.”

  “Up yours.” Malcolm laughed. It was a long-standing joke between them. Max always put down roots, or as much as they could when they had to move every twenty years or so. People got suspicious when you didn’t age a day in that many years. Malcolm was just the opposite. He didn’t get attached to anything, except his brother, fellow Ravens, his wolf, and his vehicles.

  “So if you aren’t calling to hear my sunny voice, then why are you calling me, and why are you in such a grumpy mood?”

  Malcolm told him about meeting Tamara, and her reactions to him. He could feel his eyes cross as Max started laughing, and from the sound of it, he wasn’t going to quit anytime soon. He focused his mind and sent a mental headbutt to his big brother. Hearing a groan, he smiled until Max punched him in the stomach. Even thousands of miles away, that really hurt, Malcolm thought with a grunt, listening to his brother laugh. Again.

  “Okay. Whew, I needed that laugh. Thank you.”

  “I’m so glad you’re amused. Not,” Malcolm said, but grinned.

  “I think I need to meet this woman who ran from you. On second thought, maybe not, she might just hate the way you look. She’d probably run from me too.”

  “Nah, I think she may have eaten some bad fish or something. Anyway, I spoke with Selena”—just the sound of her name rolling off his tongue made Malcolm horny—“and she said her contractor will have the renovations complete within months.” He heard his brother snort. “I know. I already told her to be prepared for delays and such, but whatever. She said we would get an invite to the open house and we could each bring a guest.” Was that a growl he heard in his own voice? What the fuck?

  “Are you going to bring anyone?” Max asked.

  Malcolm shook his head. “No. How about you?”

  “We’ll see. You never know what could happen in the next few months.” Max, like all the other men in their group, had been looking for the one woman who would complete them. Even though they’d been searching the world for the last twenty-four years looking for the lost daughter, they still had their hopes of finding their elusive Fated. Whatever that means, he thought with a sardonic smile.

  “I don’t plan to bring anyone, just in case my dick reacts to the sight, as much as the sound, of Selena.”

  The brothers talked for a few more minutes before they hung up. Malcolm turned in his chair to stare out at the sun, thinking Mount Olympus was somewhere up there. Having been sent to Earth so long ago, they all knew they’d never get to go back. Although they were created by the gods with many of their traits, they were not gods, and they didn’t belong there anymore. Oh sure, they were good enough to fight for them and protect them, even give their lives for them, but the gods and the goddesses had all treated them as lower-class beings.

  With a shake of his head he dropped his arms and jumped up, striding out of his office with one purpose. He stopped at Sharon’s desk and dropped a kiss on her forehead. She thought she was old enough to be his mother, while he silently wished she could’ve been. Not that the goddess who so generously birthed him was a bad person. None of the women who carried the twelve Ravens of War were. They just weren’t needed to be a mother when their charges were all grown men within a year of their birth.

  “Go home, woman.” Malcolm growled before softening his tone. “I’ll close up and then I’m off.”

  She looked at him like he’d grown two heads. Maybe I have, Malcolm mused.

  Sharon had worked for him for over five years. In that time, he’d tried to get her to go home early. She never agreed, but this occasion she would since her daughter had called and explained it was Sharon’s birthday and they planned to throw her a party.

  He’d gotten the invite, but there was no way on god’s green Earth he’d be going to a family party at some chain restaurant with all of Sharon’s family. “Don’t argue with me either.” He gave her his most stern look, the one anyone who spent time with him knew meant business.

  With a huff she nodded and he exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d held. He pulled her chair back and she stood on her tiptoes, giving him a motherly peck. “I’ll go, only because I planned to leave early. It’s my birthday, you know?”

  “Yes, I’m aware of that,” Malcolm said, deadpan.

  “Fine, then I’ll be off.”

  He opened the door and escorted her to the elevator. With their office suite on the twelfth floor, he always walked her to the parking garage if he was in town. This time he had a little bounce to his step, like a little boy who had gotten all A’s on his report card. He scowled at the absurd thought.

  They rode the elevator in silence until it reached the basement garage.

  “Malcolm, you don’t have to walk me to my car. I’m perfectly safe,” Sharon scolded.

  He knew she was. He’d be able to sense any threat long before it reached them, but with a shrug of his shoulders, he indicated for her to lead the way. She huffed but didn’t argue any further. They reached her regular parking space and she stopped, eyes wide, and looked around. He watched her rub her eyes and do another small circle, then she rested her gaze on him. He knew he had a goofy smile on his face, but she looked so darn cute with her hands on her ample hips while she tapped her sensible loafers.

  “Did you forget where you parked this morning?” Malcolm asked, coughing into his hand to cover his smile.

  “No, I did not forget where I parked. Do you think someone stole my car?”

  He barked out a laugh. “Why the hell would anyone wa
nt to steal your old beater?”

  “Bertha is not a beater. She’s the best and most reliable car in the world.”

  “You named your damn car Bertha? It’s a wonder it didn’t break down on you for that offense alone.”

  When she reared back with her arm preparing to pummel him with her overly large bag, he laughed and held his hands up in surrender.

  “You take that back. I love that car.”

  “Well, I hope you can learn to love that car,” Malcolm said, pointing at a brand new Mercedes-Benz SL-Class.

  “What are you talking about?” She looked truly puzzled and a little upset.

  Malcolm didn’t like to see a female of any age cry.

  “Happy Birthday Sharon.” He held up a set of keys and passed them to her. She looked at them, and then at the car before finally looking back up at him.

  “You bought me a car?”

  He shuffled his feet and nodded.

  “Where is my old car?”

  “Your daughter came and took it. She said you would want to keep it.”

  He didn’t know why anyone would want to keep a VW Beetle that was over forty years old, but who was he to judge? He loved classic cars. Hell, his garage was stocked with several. She was looking at him like he was strange again and he could feel heat rise in his cheeks.

  “Thank you, Malcolm King. You’re a good man,” Sharon said before she burst into tears.

  Malcolm dropped his head back and sighed up at the ceiling, and then he stepped forward and folded her into his arms. He knew she was all bluster when she ordered everyone around, but inside she was that motherly sort, who turned to goo when anyone did something nice for her. He held her until her tears stopped and she pulled out a tissue she somehow found in that cavernous bag.

  “So do you like it?”

  “What’s not to like? Oh my goodness, it’s beautiful, and you even got the same color as my beloved Bertha.”

  “Please, please tell me you are not going to name this car Bertha.”

  “I will have to ponder it and get to know this girl first.”