Park Avenue (Book Six in the Fifth Avenue Series) (13 page)

She got up from the couch.
 
“I’m going to take a shower,” she
said.
 
“Get out of these
clothes.
 
Probably go to bed.
 
Want to join me?”

“I’ll read for a bit and come up when you’re finished
showering.”

“OK.”

He watched her go and waited to hear the sound of the shower
running before he got up and went into the foyer for her purse.
 
He looked inside for her phone and
turned it on to check the number that came in earlier.
 
It was there, but there was no name.
 
He was about to shut the phone off when
he noticed that there were sixty-seven text messages waiting for her.
 
He knew she did a lot of texting, but
not this much.
 
He checked one of
texts and closed his eyes after he read the message:
 
“We’re going to cut off your limbs,
shove them up your ass, and murder you, bitch.”

He checked the others and saw the same message repeated
nearly seventy times.
 
They came
from someone named Deadman, an obvious riff on her last name.
 
He banned the sender, deleted every one
of the messages, memorized the number that came in earlier and called it with
his own cell.
 
All he got was an
automated voice message:
 
“Please
leave your message after the tone.”

“Mario,” Leana called.
 
“Ready to come up?”

“On my way.”

He put
her phone back in her purse and closed it.
 
Tomorrow, he’d suck it up, go to his own estranged father, and ask for
help.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Pepper Redman awoke on Sunday morning in her apartment at
Redman Place, which was high above Fifth Avenue and where many of Redman
International’s senior executives lived in high-end apartments that boasted
spectacular views of the city and the Park.
 
Now, thanks to her Uncle George, she
could count herself among them.

She turned over on her back, thought about her day and
wondered how she’d get through it.
 
It was Sunday, which is when most rested, but not Pepper.
 
Pepper worked.
 
Pepper never stopped.
 
Stopping was your ticket to missing your
chance at the top.
 
And with all the
duties her uncle had trusted her to handle, the top was so close in sight, she
felt almost blinded by it.

She looked at the clock on her bedside table and ticked off
the hours since she’d been with him.
 
For an overnight, he charged three thousand dollars, which was a bargain
considering how terrific he was in bed.
 
And now, with the clock ticking, she had only forty-five minutes before
he would charge her again.

She moved onto her side and looked at him.
 
He was beautiful.
 
Sicilian, curly dark hair, a smooth body
that was thick with muscle, and where it really mattered, he was exactly
right.
 
Not huge, but certainly
substantial and also seemingly without exhaustion.

She nudged him and he turned to her with a smile.
 
She’d been paying for his services for
about a year now because that’s how Pepper worked.
 
She didn’t have time for a
boyfriend.
 
She didn’t want the
emotional investment that was attached to it.
 

But like any young woman, Pepper still had her needs. So the
most efficient thing to do was to hire an expensive, reputable call boy like
Parker, if that even was his real name, which she doubted, and use his
services.
 
He was her semimonthly
date.
 
They’d have dinner, the
conversation was usually festive and bright, they’d fuck for hours afterwards
and she’d have a man in her bed for the rest of the night.
 
In the morning, she showed him the door.
 

For Pepper Redman, it was the ideal relationship.

But now?
 
Now,
Pepper was still horny and the forty-five minutes she had left to play with him
was something she was going to take advantage of.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Mornin’, babe.
 
Time for me to go?”

“Actually, I have you for exactly forty-five more minutes.
 
So, you know, have at me.”

“Just like that?” he said.

“Just like that, Parker.
 
Get it hard.
 
Put your
schooling to good use.”

She spread her legs, tossed off the sheets and revealed a
toned body that exposed her best assets—her breasts.
 
She was aware of him looking at her and
there was no question by the look in his eyes that what he saw was a
feast.
 

If he was nothing else, he was a passionate machine, which
Pepper enjoyed.
 
For thirty minutes,
she rode him, she straddled him, she went bottom’s up for him, she went down on
him, she bit his ear, she tasted his tongue, she pulled his hair, she called
out his name, she arched her back, and she came, came, came while continuing to
check the time on the clock to make sure she didn’t overspend.
 
As with all business deals, one had to
keep a cap on expenses, which is something Pepper didn’t take lightly.
 
When they had fifteen minutes left, she
lifted her ass into the air and said, “Spank me.”

“Spank you?
 
That’s new.”

“Spit on your hand and spank my ass.”

“You sure?”

“I’m not paying for your dawdling, Parker, and certainly not
for your indecisions.
 
You just
wasted a minute.
 
I get that minute
back.
 
That’s money in the bank for
me, and you know what money and banks mean to me.
 
Now―ow!
 
What the hell?
 
Ow!”

“Spank you like this,” he said.
 
“And like this, you filthy bitch?”

She always wanted to do this, and now she knew why.
 
It was exhilarating after the initial
shock and sting. And the dirty talk was an unexpected bonus.
 
“That’s right, but don’t be such a pussy
about it.”
 
She was breathless.
 
“Don’t be such a girl, Parker.
 
You’ve got some muscles in those
arms.
 
So spank me like you mean
it!”

He walloped her ass, leaving it red and tingling while
sending her to the edge again.
 
He
spanked her harder, and she moaned.
 
He spanked her left buttock with the back of his hand and this time she
lifted her ass higher into the air.
 

“Now, eat me.
 
Come on, Parker.
 
Get your
tongue in there and send me to the moon.”

When she had two minutes left and three orgasms under her
belt, she clapped her hands, moved away from his smeary mouth and hopped off
the bed.
 
“That was sweet,” she
said, handing him a Kleenex from the bedside table.
 
“And we have two minutes left.
 
Score.”

He wiped his mouth.
 
“Did I hit you too hard?”

“That’s a question I never want to hear again.
 
I asked for it.
 
I could have taken it harder.
 
But you’ll learn.
 
I want to shake things up between
us.
 
Next time, who knows what I’ll
ask you to do―or what I’ll do to you.
 
So, give me a kiss and be on your
way.
 
I’ll be in touch soon.”

She tried not to look at him while he dressed because, if the
truth was known, she was attracted to him and she liked him more than she
should.
 
It didn’t matter to her
that he was a whore—she enjoyed being with him.
 

What she loathed is that she knew she felt this way because
it was the old Penelope Redman slipping in.
 
The girl who could never land the hot
boy.
 
The former fat girl who barely
spoke.
 
The mousy nobody who had
zero friends until she lost the chunk, got herself into shape, worked some
magic with her makeup, styling and hair, and went to Wharton with a new
attitude.
 
There, they loved her so
much, they started calling her Pepper, because as competitive as that school
was, few were as competitive as Pepper Redman.

“You know,” Parker said, “it’s been over a year now.
 
You don’t have to pay me anymore if you
don’t want to.”

They’d been down this road before and Pepper literally had to
haul herself out of the conversation because what he was proposing was
something the old Penelope would have leaped at in a minute.
 
“Look, Parker.”
 
She stopped.
 
“Is that even your real name?”

“No.”

“What is it?”

“Manny.”

“Look, Parker,” she said.
 
“That’s a sweet offer, but to what end?”

“I could spend more time with you,” he said.
 
“We’d have something normal together.”

“So, you’re talking about a relationship again?
 
Is that what I’m hearing?”

“If you wanted one.
 
I think a lot of you, Pepper.”

“And I think a lot of you, Parker.
 
That’s why I hire you every two weeks to
come and fuck me.”

“I wish you wouldn’t put it that way.”

“But that’s what it is.
 
We fuck, we each get to come multiple times, and you get a lot of
money.
 
You just slapped my ass and
called me a filthy bitch for God’s sake.
 
That isn’t romance.
 
That’s a
hearty good time.”

“I thought you’d like the last part.”

“Calling me a filthy bitch?
 
I loved it.
 
What you need to understand is that
there’s a reason I come to you.
 
But
my focus is on my career right now.
 
As much as I’d like to have a
relationship, I can’t get involved with someone now.
 
Especially right now.
 
I like things as they are.
 
Don’t you?
 
The money is good, isn’t it?
 
Do you want more?”

He finished buttoning his pants and ran a hand through his hair.
 
“Money isn’t everything, Pepper.”

“Come again?”

“I said that money isn’t everything.”

“I must be going deaf because I know I didn’t just hear
that.”

He smiled at her.
 
“I’d like things better if we could be together.”

“But we
are
together.
 
And you get to walk out of here with a
fat check that helps to pay your rent.
 
I understand why you do this.
 
I know you went to NYU, I know you tried to find a suitable job when you
realized that being an out-of-work actor wasn’t for you, and I know how
difficult it is to find a job in this economy.
 
You’re just doing what you have to do to
keep the bills paid.
 
Without a
relationship, you can earn more money.
 
You can do it with other women—I’m perfectly fine with that.
 
Obviously.
 
Why cheat yourself out of a good life
just so you can be with one person?
 
You have all of New York at your feet.
 
And believe me, the women in this town
will bow to kiss those feet.
 
And
probably suck your toes while they’re at it, just like I did a few minutes
ago.”

He looked disappointed, but she was finished playing
therapist.
 
She was no Dr.
Pepper.
 
She got out of bed and
walked across the room to one of the chairs at the far end of it.
 
Her robe was there.
 
She caught a glimpse of herself in a
mirror as she put it on without tying it and decided that she could understand
his attraction to her, even if her curly red hair was now a hot mess.
 
She reached for her checkbook on the
vanity, scribbled out an amount much higher than Parker’s usual rate, signed
her name to it and ripped the check out of the book.
 
She walked over and handed it to him.

“I don’t want it.”

“Don’t be foolish.
 
Look at the tip.”

“I want you, Pepper.”

She put the check in his hand.
 
“I’m a little hard to get right now.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“Work,” she said.
 
“I’ve been given a few great opportunities and I can’t blow them.
 
My life is work and sometimes, every
other week, I splurge and spend a wild night with you.”
 
She lifted herself on her toes and
kissed him on the cheek.
 
“Thanks
for the spanking.
 
And dinner.
 
And all of it.
 
I’ll see you soon?” she asked.