The son of a bitch was fucking her. Cooper knew it the moment he saw Miles Whiteman cast his eye on the dark-haired beauty standing by herself on the other side of the spacious salon. There had to be three dozen people laughing and mingling in between, but the older lawyer’s eyes lit on the much younger woman with the kind of surprised disapproval that could only mean one thing: she wasn’t supposed to be there.

Cooper shouldn’t have been there either, for that matter, and was also alone. He hadn’t wanted to go. He hated business functions that masqueraded as social events. He might also have made an effort to find a last minute date, but had been hard-pressed to think of any woman he disliked enough to subject to a party packed with lawyers pretending to be something more than glorified money launderers. He’d only really shown up because he had plans for Alana, the pampered looking blonde hanging close to Whiteman’s arm.

There was always some point in the evening, some moment where the husband was engaged with some other circle of people, and a younger, up-and-coming attorney with a competing firm might touch Alana’s elbow, causing her to turn and notice, and then follow him into a conveniently vacant bathroom where he’d slip his hands inside the inappropriately revealing dress she’d chosen to wear. This was the sole objective Cooper had in mind.

He watched Whiteman pull his eyes away from the younger woman and turn to look at his wife. The coy smile Alana gave him back made it seem like she knew about the younger woman in the burgundy dress wringing her hands on the opposite side of the room. It almost seemed like the two were making a joke out of her. When the blonde finally caught sight of Cooper she pretended she didn’t see him and turned back to face her husband, watching him talk to the small circle around them like he was explaining the cure for the common cold. Cooper suddenly had the taste of metal in his mouth as he realized Miles probably knew as much about him as Alana knew about the girl in burgundy.

In the end, it didn’t matter. There were worse things than being used as a mode of revenge against a rich, cheating husband. That had been her official story, at least. Now Cooper was beginning to realize the Whitemans were just bored and jaded enough to play senseless games without caring who got hurt. But what could he say? It was how they worked. How they lived. What did it say about him that he still had every intention of fucking Alana in the bathroom or wherever else looked convenient enough? And tonight, knowing how she’d been lying to him all along, he was going to fuck her like he loved her enough to hate her. She wasn’t the only one who could lie like it was an instant reflex.

Holding a drink in one hand, Miles slipped the other behind his wife, resting it at about the right level to be touching her ass. Cooper looked over at the dark-haired woman. She was gnawing on a very supple looking bottom lip while her eyes were darting around the room like a pair of frightened birds. She didn’t strike the younger attorney as the kind of woman you lied to. There was something in her eyes he couldn’t pinpoint at first. But he studied her as much as he could get away with and finally decided whatever it was, was something genuine.

That was it. She was real. The only real living creature in the entire place. The notion of finding the right moment to pull Alana away from the crowd dissipated from Cooper’s mind. He started to work his way across the room to strike up a conversation with the girl in burgundy. He’d made it about halfway when Jordy Preston caught him by the elbow.

“Coop!” Preston said, laughing.

“Prez,” Cooper responded dryly. He was looking over Preston’s shoulder to where the girl was standing.

Preston worked with Whiteman’s firm, but he and Cooper had known each other since law school. Cooper was usually glad to see him, but now his attention was on the woman over near the bar. She looked fretful, and she wouldn’t be standing still just for Cooper to go satisfy his curiosity about her. He had to get past Preston as quickly as he could.

***

Nova's night had gone from bad to worse to fucking hell. She didn't want to be at the goddamn party. She hardly knew anyone and she certainly had no intention of changing that. She'd never planned to be there at all. But Miles hadn't been answering his phone and the message from his overseas client couldn't wait.

As his personal assistant, she'd always gone above and beyond and figured she'd deliver the memo and be in and out of the place in five minutes. But she couldn't get Miles alone. He'd been surrounded by guests all night and his ridiculously perfect wife hadn't let go of him for hours.

Nova eyed Alana Whiteman furiously. The woman was so fake it repulsed her. She had the perfect-wife act down to a tee. Miles had confided his wife's infidelities to Nova numerous times, so much so that she didn't know how he could still bear to even touch her. Perhaps it was all a show for the guests. That made sense, Nova decided. It made perfect sense. Obviously, he had to pretend his marriage was perfect because that was what everyone believed. It was just an act.

But Nova couldn't sell herself the lie. There was more. All evening he'd been looking at Alana in a way that seemed untouchable, like they were on the highest level of a game nobody else even knew the rules to. He didn't hate her like he'd said. No. He was all over her.

Nova felt sick. Used. It'd been months since she'd begun sleeping with Miles and a mere two days since he'd bent her over his walnut desk and fucked her until he came. It might have seemed like a typical office affair but Nova had fallen too hard, believed too much. She'd taken his lies and false promises, building on them to create a fantasy future, but now everything was falling apart and she was nothing but a joke. She hated him. She hated Alana. But mostly she hated herself. 

Miles was leaning over, whispering in his wife's ear and Nova couldn't bear it, didn't want to look but couldn't help herself either. Everything felt disoriented. She needed to clear her head, figure out what everything translated to, but there were too many people, too much noise.

She drained her flute of champagne and headed for the closest exit.

***

Cooper finally made a facile excuse and left Preston behind. He followed Nova’s path toward the rear of the house, trying a couple of wrong doors along the way before finding her on the marble-tiled verandah in back. Her knuckles were turning white as she grasped the stone railing at the edge like she was trying to crush it. He slid the heavy glass door shut behind himself and stepped outside. She turned and eyed him suspiciously as he crossed the tiles.

“Can I help you?” she frowned.

“I saw you inside. I think you know Miles Whiteman,” he replied cautiously.

“Maybe,” she said evasively. “What's it to you anyway?”

“I’m a...friend of Alana’s.”

Nova scoffed. “According to Miles, his wife has a lot of 'friends’.” She looked Cooper up and down. “Yeah. You do look the part.”

“I hate to disappoint anyone. But it might interest you to know that Alana says the same thing about her husband’s friends.”

If Nova was surprised, she hid it well. She narrowed her eyes, chin tilted up defensively.

“I couldn't be less interested in whatever you two talk about. Please, spare me the details of your romantic pillow talk.”

Cooper bristled. She had a barbed tongue like few he’d ever seen, but then he had to realize she was stuck in the middle of a party where the man she was fucking couldn’t keep his hands off his wife. Moonlight flickered in her dark eyes as she looked up at him like something she might have scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

“I wouldn’t call it very romantic,” he told her. “You might be surprised at how much she has to say about a certain PA from Miles’ office. That would be you, wouldn’t it?”

Nova looked furious. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. She almost laughed.

“And you must be the personal trainer. Or maybe the gardener. But you're wearing a suit. Huh.” She pretended to think it over. “Maybe the brand new pretentious paralegal.”

“It’s worse,” Cooper told her, following the lines of her face in an endless loop. “I’m a lawyer with the competitors of Miles’ firm. I’m Alana’s revenge … for you, apparently.”

“Revenge?” Nova laughed humorlessly. “Like she's ever needed an excuse.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “A lawyer, though? That's different. Which firm?”

“Bailey, Michaels, Edson and Associates. The enemy. I’m Cooper Land, an associate there. But I didn’t come out here to make enemies with you. I was curious, I guess. And then there’s something I thought you might want to know.”

She looked at him, uncertain but intrigued. “I'm Nova Clark,” she said finally, “And yes, I'm Miles’ assistant.” She frowned. “But what would I want to know from you?”

Cooper heaved a long, deflating breath. He almost changed his mind about saying anything. Obviously, she’d fallen in love. She had a right to be furious. Cooper didn’t love Alana enough to be angry with her about anything. For that matter, he didn’t love her at all.

“Nova,” he began as gently as he could, “everything I’ve seen and felt since I got here tonight tells me Miles and Alana both know everything about both of us. Like we’re some kind of private joke for them. It’s all over the way they look at each other, the way I saw them both looking at you. I’m sorry.”

Nova looked at him like she didn't know where else to look. For a while, she didn't say anything. Words seemed to cross her face a dozen times before she finally spoke.

“So - what?” Her voice had a forced edge. “We're just a game? Like toys? Is that what you think?”

“No. It’s just what I think they think … of us. You? I can see you’re anything but a toy.”

“He's really something,” Nova said. Despite her obvious distress, she almost smiled. “They both are. They're fucking unbelievable.”

“I know,” Cooper said. “But you know what? It's their loss. His loss, specifically. He must be crazy playing a girl like you.”

“Don't,” Nova said but her eyes were on his, soft and wistful, and Cooper felt like he could have spent hours just luxuriating in the silent, beautiful connection. But then something distracted her and all too soon the moment was gone.

***

“Fuck,” Nova said. She was looking past Cooper through the glass doors to where a light had flicked on, illuminating the unwelcome figures of Miles and Alana. The couple had obviously snuck away from their own party. They shut the door behind them, kissing extravagantly, hands clawing at one another's clothes.

Nova let out a disbelieving huff.

“Just look at her,” she spat. She had to back up against the granite railing, leaning on it for support. “All over him like a cheap shirt.”

“It's not all her,” Cooper said softly.

Nova narrowed her eyes but he was right. Miles was groping his wife’s ass through her chiffon evening gown even as Alana's manicured hand found its way into his tailored pants. It didn’t take the pneumatically built blonde long to wrangle her husband’s fully swollen erection into the open. She stroked his cock while staring at him with a boozy smirk.

Nova felt Cooper looking at her and as much as she wanted to feign indifference, her fury threatened to engulf her.

“He said they never fucking touch each other anymore,” she seethed. “What a liar.”

“She said he couldn’t get it up,” Cooper offered. “Obviously untrue.”

They appraised each other silently. Nova's eyes went momentarily back to the Whitemans before settling on Cooper. Somehow their shared misfortune appeased her a little.

She took a long breath. The night air was cool, the breeze gentle against her skin. She tilted her face up to the sky and exhaled. Everything felt like too much. She'd been Miles's assistant for two years now and between his promises and lies she'd been waiting on a fairytale ending. But there was nothing, not for her anyhow. People like him played people like her, just like Alana had done with Cooper. They were toys. The idea enraged her.

“Don't you just fucking hate them?” she demanded.

Cooper looked at her.

“What's the point?” he asked. “It doesn't change anything.”

She glared at him, wanting more. Surely he must be angered, upset, something, anything to rival the riot of rage coursing through her.

“You don't care?” she pressed. She let go of the railing and walked back towards him, her steps measured. He watched her approach, dark eyes lingering on her legs.

“Why would I?” He shrugged. “She’s nothing special. Is he?”

Nova blinked, caught off guard. She stopped a few steps away from him. Was Miles special? He was all she'd known for months now, their lives so fiercely entangled it seemed impossible to ever stop anything. He was charming and perfect and yet seeing him so close to his wife spun everything into nauseating reality. Their marriage wasn't dead. It was alive and kicking. Alive and fucking.

“He….” Her voice stalled and her expression seemed to ease into a softer veil of confusion. “... he’s a fucking con artist.”

“I can tell you one thing,” Cooper said. He touched the side of her face, smiling at her as if everything would be alright as long as she’d smile back. “He wouldn’t know special if he saw it in a car crash.”

Nova blinked. His fingertips felt cool against her cheek, gentle enough for her to want to lean into his touch. Half a smile touched the corner of her mouth and she took a step closer to him, reducing the distance between them. Suddenly, her eyes glanced past him and shot open wide.

“Oh. My. Fucking. God.”

Cooper turned to follow her gaze. Alana was on her knees in the marble-tiled salon. She was sucking her husband’s swollen cock, her platinum head bobbing back and forth while her hand cupped and fondled his balls. Cooper couldn’t help smirking as he watched. He’d enjoyed the woman’s talented mouth many times over, often in just the same way Miles was now experiencing - the eager sucking, fondling and stroking made Cooper’s own cock tingle with hot sense memories even though he had no desire to cum in Alana Whiteman’s mouth ever again.

After a moment, he felt Nova’s lips against his ear as she whispered the most delicious words he’d ever heard.

“I’m better than that,” she told him. “Much better than that.”

She flushed even before the words left her mouth, amazed at her own audacity. Back inside the party, champagne had been flowing freely and perhaps she’d had too much. Her mind felt dizzily alive and the breezy summer night made her feel like being reckless. She didn’t care. Miles didn’t care. Why should she?

But Cooper hadn’t responded and she felt the beginnings of mortification threaten. She was about to pull away when his hand closed around her wrist.

“Is that a fact?” His voice was low, his breath warm against her skin. She felt a profound urge to turn her face and kiss him hard on the mouth. She did turn her face a little and he pulled on her wrist so she came closer, until there were just centimetres between them. His eyes were dark. He leaned his face closer like he was about to kiss her. She wanted him to. Desperately. But he stopped, his lips a whisper from hers.

“Why don’t you show me?”

His eyes didn’t leave hers. Nova could feel the heat radiating from his body.

“What, now?”

Her lips touched his as she spoke and his breath caught. He swallowed hard and the accomplishment of affecting him physically thrilled her.

“You want me to put my mouth on your cock?” she asked. “Is that what you want, Cooper?”

His eyes closed momentarily. She leaned forward, kissing him urgently, and his mouth opened to hers, hand going into her hair. He kissed her like he craved her, violently almost and she gasped into his mouth as his tongue invaded, hungry and searching. Her body pressed against his and she felt him growing hard against her stomach. It made everything inside her clench. She reached between their bodies and touched him through his pants, feeling the hardening shape of his cock.

“Fuck,” he hissed. “Don’t fucking tease me.”

He kissed her again, tongue so far into her mouth it felt like he was trying to consume her. Her fingers found the zipper on his straining pants and tugged it down so she could feel him through the cotton of his shorts. He was fully erect now, and he groaned into her mouth as she squeezed him firmly. Her heart was racing.

He pulled his mouth from hers. “Do it,” He kissed her again. “Fuck, just show me, huh? That mouth…” His thumb brushed her lower lip. “I can hardly imagine.”

Her mouth closed but he pressed his thumb against it, wanting an entry. She didn't give it. Her dark eyes were on his, her hand still caressing his aching cock. He groaned. He reached down, took her hand and guided it past the waistband of his boxers so she was touching him, skin on skin.

“C’mon,” he coaxed, “Show me, huh?”

Her eyes flicked to the Whitemans - to Alana's enthusiastic efforts and something inside her steeled. She tugged Cooper's cock free and dropped carefully to her knees before him. Cold flagstones against her bare skin. She regarded him silently. His hand caressed her cheek. He was throbbing beneath her fingers. Nobody but them. Two 'other’ people. It made her want to give him everything just because she could. She extended her tongue and licked the very tip of his cock, so gently and briefly that he shuddered.

“Fuck, baby.” His voice was a growl. She licked again, tongue pressing harder this time as she circled the domed head. She looked up at him in the dark, wondering how much he could see. His hand went into her hair, gripping tight as her lips closed around him.

Her eyes cast a sideways glance through the window, monitoring Alana's performance. She barely knew Cooper but she felt recklessly determined to do better, to be more to this man than Alana could ever be to Miles. She sucked hard, her tongue playing against his hard flesh as she took in more and more of his cock.

“Fuck,” he hissed the word as she reached to stroke his smooth, heavy balls, her touch light as a feather. She felt his hand tighten in her hair but he didn't try to take over the way Miles always did. It only made her want to prove herself. She sucked hard, taking in more before she was sure she was ready but every gasp and groan from Cooper only added to her determination. Her tongue swirled against him, her mouth full of hard cock, her fingers caressing his balls more firmly now. She pulled back suddenly and sucked in a long breath of air before going again, using both hands this time - one at his balls and the other firmly gripping the base of his cock.

“You are out of this fucking world,” he growled. His hand was painfully tight in her hair, his cock hard as granite in her eager mouth. She felt alive, like she had the power to blow up his entire world. It was in the way he strained, the rasp of his breath, the fucking tightrope of control she could sense him testing. She pulled back breathlessly her hand still pumping steadily as she looked up at him.

Cooper’s pulse was jacked, and Nova’s eyes held his as she knelt there stroking his wet cock.

“You were right,” he told her quietly. “Better isn’t even the word.”

The words felt hollow as soon as they hit the air. She wasn’t a toy in some kind of empty competition, yet the smaller the Whitemans looked, the bigger he and Nova felt. He cast a glance back toward the other couple. Miles was now sitting on the edge of an antique chair while his wife stood in front of him with one foot up on the arm. His face was angled into the blonde’s pussy while she held the bottom of her dress up around her hips.

When Nova caught Cooper looking inside she turned to follow his gaze. Her hand was still wrapped around his solid cock as she took in the tawdry scene.

“I know you’re going to taste much sweeter than that,” Cooper whispered with his lips against her ear. He crouched, sliding his hand under her burgundy dress and up the inside of her thighs until he was touching her mound through the thin lace of her panties.

“I do,” she said. “I promise. I have to. I just have to.”

Cooper’s fingers slipped into her panties and grazed over the smoothness of her pussy, searching down for the moist lips between her thighs. A mewling sound came from her throat when he touched her slit.

“You will,” he told her. “And I’m going to do better than that.” He nodded toward Miles whose head was barely visible now. “Much better.”

“Show me.”

Cooper sat on the stone rail, his rigid cock still jutting up through his open zipper. He patted the space beside him, inviting Nova to rest her foot there just the way Alana had her foot up on the arm of the chair where her husband was sitting. When she stepped forward to do it, Cooper told her to wait. He looked up at her with a smile as he reached under her dress and pulled her panties down her legs. She stepped free of them and he balled them up in his fist and tucked them into his jacket pocket.

Nova lifted her dress and put her foot up on the railing. Cooper pressed his lips to the pout of her bare mound and kissed her, letting his tongue snake out to taste the very apex of her slit. His hand moved upward to explore her pussy lips with the tips of his fingers. Her hips arched in response. There was a flush of slick nectar as he slipped his fingers along her slit and drove his tongue against the center.

Nova clutched the back of his head and arched her hips, allowing him better access. He lashed at her swollen clit with his tongue while sliding a finger up inside her. She felt like pure honey-coated heat inside and she began to rock against his face and hand. The more of Nova’s taste that dripped over his lips and tongue, the further Alana was shoved from his mind. There was nothing but Nova’s flowing heat, the swirling sounds of her gasps and sighs, the slick velvet of her inner sheath rocking in counterpoint with his finger.

Cooper’s finger curled against her G-spot. Her body arched harder, as if she were following his beckoning finger into his face. The clutch of her fingers tightened against his head as she rose toward her peak. He groaned against her, wanting to command her to cum for him yet not wanting to break the steady onslaught of his slashing tongue across her clit.

Suddenly Nova’s body went stiff and she shivered inside her sodden core. Cooper sucked at her tender slit, grinding his finger against her sweet spot until her body went slack and she backed away.

There was a dazed look in her eye as she stared at him, sitting there with his swollen cock jutting up through the open fly of his pants.

“I want it all,” he told her quietly, still aware of the Whitemans just inside.

“I know.” She nodded, mostly with her eyes.

Cooper stood up and stepped across the short gap between them, his aching cock swaggering with the motion. Taking a glance over her shoulder, he could see inside how Miles now had his wife bent over the back of the chair he’d been sitting in before. Alana’s dress was up over her hips, Miles clutching her ass while he drove his cock into her pussy from behind.

He took Nova by the shoulders and turned her around, guiding her to look at the other couple. She took in a sharp breath. Cooper lifted the back of her dress and pressed his cock into the warm cleft between her ass cheeks.

“We’re better than that,” he said with his lips against her ear. “You know we are.”

Nova simply nodded and gingerly walked the few feet toward one of the patio tables. She leaned down on the tabletop and reached back to lift up her dress, turning her head back toward Cooper at the same time.

“Don’t stop until it’s true,” she said.

“Fuck,” Cooper muttered as he stepped up close enough to Nova to grasp her hips and grind his aching cock against the warmth of her smooth ass. He explored the feel of her cheeks and thighs until he reached forward with one hand to grip her by the hair. The other hand took hold of his cock and guided it into the slick folds of her pussy, rubbing the tip over her lips until her nectar was coating his skin. He watched Miles fuck his wife while he ground his own cock into the viscous heat of Nova’s sheath.

Nova stopped breathing in the moments it took Cooper to sink his cock deep into her body. When he was all the way inside, her body started to rise and fall with breath again. She turned her head so her cheek was against the table and he could look at her fine profile. Then he started to pull back, easing his cock out and suddenly thrusting back inside her. She winced and rolled her hips. Cooper began rocking his rigid cock in and out of her clasping pussy, throbbing harder by the second.

Every few moments, Cooper glanced back at Miles and Alana. It was impossible not to realize how they’d all been here like this before - Cooper with Alana, Miles with Nova - but as he felt the vibrant clutch of Nova’s pussy along his shaft there was nothing remotely the same. Nova moved like she knew him, like her hips were dancing with his. It was like she felt him from the inside out. He realized they weren’t fucking. They were forming themselves to each other.

Cooper ignored the Whitemans now. His eyes were on Nova, watching her jaw open and close to the rhythmic thrusting of his cock. Listening to the jagged rush of her breath. He let go of her luxurious hair and gripped the cheeks of her ass with both hands, prying her open.

“Make it true,” she mewled against the glass top of the table.

Cooper grunted and thrust harder, feeling the ripples of another climax shiver through Nova’s core. He lost himself and felt his cock erupt with pulsing jets of cum gushing into the frothing center of her mutual release.

When it was over, he leaned forward, pressing his body carefully onto her back. He kissed her neck while their breathing subsided to a normal pace.

“It’s true,” he said. Nothing else made sense. “It’s true.”

***

Cooper shouldn’t have looked so bored fucking Alana from behind while she bent over the sofa in the hotel suite his firm kept for visiting clients. The blonde was rolling her broad hips against the counterpoint drive of his cock, her head shaking from side to side while her breasts swung heavily under her lurching body. She’d taken the video with her phone without Cooper knowing, and now it was spread in full color across the enormous flat screen television in the Whitemans' master bedroom.

Miles had his wife in a similar position now, except that she was hunkered onto all fours on their bed. He was behind her, grasping her hips and driving his overheated prick into her pussy from behind her. He loved watching her fuck in videos. She performed like a porn star, and that simpering idiot, Cooper Rand, looked like he was fighting to stay awake. But it wasn’t enough to ruin it for Miles. His wife was on fire. She’d only been fucking the younger lawyer to add to their collection of homemade porn.

Rand could’ve been any shithead with a functioning dick in his pants off any street corner in the city. Yet knowing he was with a competing firm added to the thrill. Even so, Miles had asked Alana why she hadn’t gone after one of the married partners. He had yet to go so far as open blackmail or extortion, but he liked knowing he had the leverage their growing video collection could provide.

“Fuck it,” Miles groaned, slamming his hips into his wife’s sturdy body. “You look like a star, baby.”

Alana moaned and rolled her hips against her husband’s cock, nearly mirroring the gyrations of her body in the video. Miles watched her watching herself. She got off on this as much as he did. At least. No. More. She went into a kind of trance that only a sound fuck could ever bring her back from, and sending her out to fuck half the lawyers in the city was a small price to pay for the pleasure.

Cooper started spanking Alana in the video. She lifted her head and looked directly into the camera, performing not for Cooper, but herself and Miles.

“Oh, fuck,” the blonde growled as she watched herself getting fucked and spanked on screen.

Miles felt her pussy clench and fucked her harder, pummeling his excited rod into her as fast as he could. Alana’s climax was even more explosive than the one she had in the video, and Miles didn’t even try to hold back any longer, pumping his own release deeply into his wife’s clasping maw.

The two started laughing even before they caught their breath, while Miles’ cock was still embedded in the blonde’s damp body. But they finally separated and leaned back on the bed. They watched a little more of the video before Miles finally switched it off. It had served its purpose. For now.

“Has Cooper tried to get in touch with you?” Miles asked his wife.

She laughed briefly. “Not since the party the other night,” she said. “I’m quite sure he learned his place when he saw us together. You were such an animal, darling. Pawing me like that in front of everyone.”

“Mmmm, I think everyone could tell how hard you’d been fucked after our little private party in the library,” Miles chuckled.

Alana simply smiled in response. Then said, “I assume your mousy little office bitch in heat knows her place now, too.”

Miles bristled slightly. It wasn’t like Alana to show that much jealousy. After all, Nova had been of no more importance to him than Cooper had to her. She should have remembered as much. But she got this way anytime he amused himself with women who were younger or more attractive than she was comfortable with. If he was being honest with himself, he was getting tired of her attitude, and he decided he’d have to be more selective about telling his wife about his extra-curricular playmates.

Besides, despite their public display of affection at the party, Miles fully intended to keep fucking Nova. She was anything but mousy. She was also the best PA he’d ever had, and he didn’t want to lose her. Not only was she capable of solving a vast array of work-related complications, she could kneel down between his feet and take away his stress with a sorely needed midday blowjob.

Nova was genuine. She was devoted, sincere and trusting. And people with qualities like that could be used to his advantage. Nova was simply too valuable to let go of that easily.

Not wanting to take the conversation any further, Miles got out of bed and went into the small office adjacent to the bedroom. Alana called to him from bed, admonishing him for never taking his mind off work.

“Just need to check on something, baby,” he called back. “I won’t be long.”

He opened his laptop and logged onto the site for the bank in the Caymans. He had four separate accounts where he hid several million from the more ethical members of the firm. Two of the clients he worked with had very healthy business in small countries south of the border, where customs officials were easily bought. It wasn’t like Miles was heavily involved in the illegal part. He merely helped his clients launder their money. It was the easiest and most lucrative work he’d ever done.

A large deposit should have hit one of his accounts within the last few hours, and Miles wanted to make sure the money had posted on time. But as he entered the password for each account, nothing came up but rows of zeros in each one.

“What the fuck,” he muttered, realizing there had to have been a massive error somewhere.

“Darling? Is everything okay?” Alana called.

“Umm, fine, yeah, just fine,” he snapped.

Miles gaped at the monitor, feeling his stomach drop. He picked up his phone and immediately hit the number for his bank contact in the Caribbean.

“Where the fuck is my money?!” Miles growled without preamble.

“Mr. Whiteman?” a confused sounding voice replied. It was Russ Packard, Miles’ bank contact.

“Where the fuck is my money, Russ?” Miles asked again with a deadly serious tone. His heart was beginning to pound and he wanted to explode.

“I don’t understand, sir.”

Miles explained the problem, and after checking the system, all Packard could do was explain that the accounts had been transferred to another bank just a few hours earlier. Miles could barely speak. His voice shook as he told Packard he most certainly had not moved his money to any other bank.

“I’m afraid it was done with your personal password, sir,” Packard told him. “All quite legal, of course. And I’m afraid there’s no way of tracing where the money was transferred. Does anyone else have your passwords, sir? Your wife, perhaps?”

“My wife?” Miles screamed at the phone. “Now why the fuck would I trust my wife of all people with my password to millions in laundered drug money?”

Miles was beside himself. He didn’t even realize what he’d said until he caught sight of Alana leaning naked in the doorway looking daggers at him. He disconnected the call, then picked up his laptop and flung it across the room.

“What was that you were saying?” Alana demanded.

“It was for us,” he said. “A safety net like you never imaged. But it’s fucking gone, and I have no idea where or how. We’re fucking broke!”

Alana gazed at him in shock. Her face went red and then she disappeared back into the bedroom. Miles was relieved to be left alone.

“Don’t worry. I’m gonna figure this out,” he called to his wife. Then he hit Nova’s number. If anyone could help him straighten out a mess like this it was her. She knew of his offshore accounts, but only what he wanted her to know. If he had to let her know more about his business than he wanted so be it. At least he could get his money back where it belonged.

But Nova’s number was no longer in service. All seven times he tried it. It wasn’t right. He’d only spoken to her the day before yesterday. He decided to go to her apartment and talk to her face to face. When he went back into the bedroom, Alana was dressed and hurriedly packing a suitcase.

“Broke? Drug money? For fuck’s sake, Miles. It’s one thing to be married to a scumbag, but a broke scumbag is out of the question.”

“I fucking told you I’m gonna straighten this out. I’m just going to Nova’s place since her phone is …”

Alana started laughing hysterically. “Nova. Of course. Who else? You idiot!”

Miles was fuming, pacing the room like a caged animal while Alana kept moving around, collecting what she needed to throw into her luggage. He didn’t need to go to Nova’s apartment. The conniving, vindictive bitch wouldn’t be there. He’d never trusted his PA with any of his passwords, but she was easily smart enough to find them if she wanted to. And after the look he’d seen in her eyes the night of the party, he knew he’d hurt her that badly.

He knew he could get the cartel to find her, but that would mean admitting how badly he’d fumbled his own business, even though it had only been his own money the little skank had stolen.

He took a deep breath. He still had his practice. He could build it back up. At least Nova hadn’t called the FBI. They could get past this. Build it back up.

“Baby, we can build it back up,” he said while Alana was squeezing her suitcase closed. “There’s no reason for you to go. It’s just a blip.”

“Blip this,” she snarled, cupping her pussy through her leggings just before she dragged her suitcase out the door. She sounded like she’d gotten about halfway down the stairs when she called back to Miles. “Remember the times I oohed and ahhed and told you how fucking big you are? And how no-one ever fucked me like you?”

“What the fuck?”

“I lied, asshole.”

Miles grabbed the bedside lamp Alana had always loved and ripped the cord out of the wall. He flung it as hard as he could through the open bedroom door. It shattered against the wall at the top of the stairs. The only thing he regretted at the moment was that his vapid slut of a wife wasn’t still there to duck the flying shards.

***

Three Weeks Later

Nova took a sip of her second mojito and sighed contentedly. The sun had been out all morning and showed no signs of waning. If it stayed this way, the Maldives would have her golden brown in a matter of days and she couldn't imagine anything better.

“God,” she sighed, extending her legs in the sugar white sand. “This is perfection.”

Cooper's eyes went over her body hungrily.

“It really is,” he said. He was wearing shorts and tanning almost as fast as her. “You sure you don't need more sunscreen? Because I really wouldn't mind doing the honors.”

Nova laughed. “I’m sure. You did a very, very thorough job earlier.”

Cooper groaned. He leaned over and kissed her, his mouth hard on hers. He always kissed her like he never wanted to stop and it made everything inside her crave him even more. He began kissing her neck hungrily.

“You think he knows yet?" Nova asked. "God, I wish I could see the look on his face.” She sighed. “He’ll go crazy. Absolutely crazy. And if you did everything right, they'll never even trace it to us.” She smiled, the sunlight making her dark eyes glow a burnt gold. “Besides, even if they do, there's absolutely nothing they can do. What’s he gonna do? Call the cops because we stole his dirty money?”

Cooper gave her a mysterious grin. “You obviously haven’t checked the headlines today.”

Nova sat up suddenly and grabbed for her phone, swiping the screen until the list of news stories came up. She found the one he was talking about right away, reading the words with a heady mixture of amusement and disbelief.

Prominent American attorney, Miles Whiteman, entered the FBI witness protection program earlier today following allegations of international money laundering. Federal agents raided the lawyer’s office and home last week, following up on an anonymous tip. Whiteman’s estranged wife is believed to be the source of the tip, although Mrs. Whiteman was unavailable for comment at this time.

Nova was stunned, then broke into a fit of laughter that nearly left her winded.

“We make a pretty good team,” Cooper smirked, raising his head to look at her. “Even outside the bedroom.”

Nova sighed extravagantly.

“We never even have to see them again. We can just live like millionaires forever.” She reached for her drink and sipped, even as Cooper moved above her. His leg rested between hers, his body casting a shadow over her lithe frame.

“Take it off,” he said. His eyes were on the zigzag top of the string bikini she wore. Nova set down her drink and looked at him disbelievingly.

“Here? You're crazy,”

“Crazy for you maybe,” Cooper didn't shift. “C’mon, it's a private beach. I want to see you in the sun.”

Nova frowned. She bit her lip and leaned back, deliberating. There were a few other sunbathers and some people in the water but no-one was paying anyone else any attention.

“Say I do,” she said, “then what?”

“Then we'll both get naked so we can fuck,” Cooper growled. His hand caressed her warm leg, starting at the ankle and skimming up to her thigh. He stopped, tracing his fingertip along the line where her silky skin met the inside edge of her bikini bottoms.

“God,” Nova watched him breathlessly, fighting the urge to close her legs even though with him between them such an attempt would be futile.

“And then when we've finished,” Cooper continued, “we can go back to the room to shower together.”

“You’re insatiable,” Nova breathed.

“Only for you,” Cooper said. His fingers pressed hard against the scrap of material covering the heat of her pussy. “You get me this way. Just the sight of you gets me hard.”

Nova felt her body respond helplessly to his touch. She moaned quietly.

“You’re everything,” she whispered.

“And when we've showered, and I've got you all clean, we'll eat lunch and then do whatever.” Cooper watched her expression as he stroked her hard through her panties. “Whatever you want, baby.”

“I only want you,” Nova sighed and she reached to untie her bikini, aware of Cooper's eyes following her every move. He looked at her like no man ever had; like she was the only woman worth anything on the planet and it thrilled her to no end.

Her fairytale ending had finally materialised, and the best part? It was only just beginning.