“Yes, Mr. Cortez.”
As Justin and I step inside the elevator, I enter our code for the penthouse. “Just make sure everything is perfect for Stella tomorrow. That’s the main priority.”
Mandy smiles brightly at me and gives us a mock salute. “Aye,aye, captains.”
When the doors close, I look at Justin and open my mouth. But before I can speak, he holds his hand up.
“I didn’t want to talk about it then and I don’t want to talk about it now.”
“If there’s something I should know, now’s the time.”
He looks at me and then looks away, clearly trying to decide if he should tell me something. After a second he shakes his head. “It’s nothing. She’s not a problem.”
“What do you mean, ‘it’s nothing’? What? What is nothing?”
He closes his eyes and sighs deeply. “The night I had dinner with Natasha, something happened. I was just trying to be polite and then forget the night ever happened. I hardly said five words with how much she talked. She was so persistent, and she just wouldn’t leave me alone, so I agreed and suffered through it. I thought maybe if I ignored her, she’d get annoyed and leave. Apparently it didn’t work out that way. I swear to God I never touched her…” His words trail off, and I know I'm going to have to push him to tell me the rest.
“But?”
“But somehow I ended up in her hotel room naked.”
I reach over to hit the stop button, pausing our ascent to the penthouse. “You did what?”
“Believe me, I know how it sounds. I had one glass of wine, and all I can think is that maybe she tried to roofie me. I went to the restroom once, and then another time I had to take a phone call, so she could have done it during either time I was away from the table. I swear the chick is psycho.”
“What happened, Justin?” I’m trying not to lose my patience, but I need to know the whole story.
“When I came to, I was in her hotel bed, and she walked out of the bathroom in lingerie. From what I could tell, she was shocked that I was awake, and then irritated she hadn’t been able to seal the deal. I don’t think she’s too smart because between the roofie and the headache from the roofie, there was no way my guy was in working order.” He rubs his eyes, looking embarrassed and aggravated. “I grabbed my clothes and ran out of the room naked, getting dressed in the hallway. I couldn’t get away from her fast enough. There’s no way I touched her, and I know she had to have help carrying me up to her room.”
“Didn’t you check the cameras?”
He looks at me like I’m an idiot. “Don’t you think that would’ve been the first thing I did? Unfortunately we weren’t here.”
I feel the tension crawl up my neck. “So call in a favor to the other hotel and ask for the camera footage. Find out what happened.”
“And therein, big brother, lies the problem. We were at the Snake Eyes.”
“Fuck.” I clench my teeth together. I can’t believe this is the first time I’m hearing about this. It had to have happened over a month ago because no way would Justin have agreed to have dinner with Natasha after we laid eyes on our Stella.
“Hence why I haven’t found out exactly what happened that night. And if Charles doesn’t know about it, I really don’t want to bring it to his attention,” he says. I can see how torn up he is about this. We don't keep shit from each other, and I bet this has been riding him hard.
“You really think he doesn’t know anything?”
“I don’t think he would keep company with someone like Natasha, but who knows. What I do know is that it happened about four months ago, and I haven’t received any backlash from it so far. I think someone like her wouldn’t be able to sit on information that could potentially make her money, so it leads me to believe she doesn’t have anything.” I can see the hope in his eyes, but you can never be too safe.
“It’s a long shot, and I don’t know that I’m willing to take that risk. We need to meet with him tomorrow. After his showing up at the auction and bidding on Stella, I don’t want to leave that as a loose end.”
He looks at me for a second and then nods his head in agreement. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to pretend it never happened.”
“Believe me, I understand.” Reaching over, I hit the code and the elevator starts to move again. “We’ve got bigger things to deal with tonight. All that shit can keep for one more day.”
When we reach the penthouse, the elevators open, and we walk straight to our room. To our girl. Justin and I usually crash here after late nights at the casino, but we’ve never brought a woman here before. We knew Stella was different and we wanted her to be the first and the last in our bed.
When we reach the door, I try to open it quietly so we don’t wake her up. I look at the bed and see it’s empty and untouched. Panic shoots through my whole body and I go to the bedside phone. Just then Justin grabs my arm and points to the back of the room.
Stella is curled up on the couch, with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She’s still wearing the nightie from the auction and nothing else. Her skin is covered in goose bumps, and she looks like she’s freezing.
“Why is she on the couch?” I whisper my question to no one in particular. It’s obvious Justin doesn't know either.
“Pick her up. I’ll get the bed ready.”
He moves back to the bed, and I look down at Stella, seeing how perfect and innocent she looks in her sleep. I take off my suit jacket and let it fall to the floor. I reach down and scoop up Stella. She’s so tiny, and once I have her in my arms, she curls into me further for warmth. I don’t understand why she was on the couch, but while she’s here, she’s in our bed with us. I don’t care if she doesn’t want to have sex, I’ll hold her every night. I just want her against my body and between us in our bed, right where she belongs.
When I walk over, Justin has the covers pulled back and he’s taking off his clothes. I slide her in, and she sleepily goes to the middle of the bed, curling up again. She hasn't so much as twitched an eyelid, so I know she must have been exhausted. Once Justin slides in with her, she clings to him, wrapping her arms around his body. He smiles up at me, and I undress quickly, needing to be against her too.
When I’m naked, I get into bed, spooning behind Stella. To my surprise, she pushes her ass against me and tangles her legs with mine. She’s so thick around her waist and hips that when I reach down and grab her there, I can get a handful of her. It makes my already hard cock unbelievably painful as I grip her body like this and think about how hard and deep I want to sink inside her virgin body.
I push her nightie up, just wanting as much skin-on-skin contact as possible. Justin seems to have the same idea and he helps me remove it completely. Stella sleepily complies, moaning a little when we pull the silk up around her tits.
It’s hard to maneuver the material over her without waking her up, and just as I have the thought, I hear the silk rip, and Justin smiles at me. After that we easily remove the pieces, and she’s sandwiched between us, completely naked.
I moan into her shoulder at the feeling of her lush ass pushed against my dick. No way am I going to be able to sleep with this thing.
Again, it’s as if Justin reads my mind. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“What if she wakes up? I don’t want to freak her out.”