Power Play Read online

  I thought back to the silky, slender Stone at the country club. I could see it. Deacon was a bull, but Jesse was a snake, sharp and seductive.

  “Your father still put you in charge,” I said firmly. “That’s what matters.”

  “Like I said, it’s temporary,” Deacon said. “My mother has an equal share too, and she gets to decide who ends up with it, when she’s dead or done caring. There's no question where her loyalties lie. My father might have preferred Jesse, but my mother outright hates me.”

  Deacon’s gaze lay far away, dark and mysterious like the eyes of some hawk. I gave his hand a squeeze. The inner workings of a billionaire all came down to family drama. Guess money couldn’t fix that.

  It was clear he didn’t share this often. This was a gift, another one I hadn't asked for. It felt wrong. We were on such uneven footing.

  I gathered my breath and said, “My mother was no relief either. My father was the one who abused me, but she stood by it all.”

  Deacon’s attention snapped to me. “Abuse? What are you talking about?”

  Oh god, no, no, no. That’s not what I wanted to show. “Not abuse. I’m just saying that he made up his own rules without my mom doing a thing to interfere.”

  That sounded worse. Well, it sounded as bad as it had actually been, but Deacond didn't need to hear that. I tried to sit back, but his hands cupped mine.

  “You just called it abuse,” he said.

  I looked around at the happy swarming families. Some of these women might be bound in their cultures, but most seemed happy. Far happier than I’d ever been growing up.

  “I’m just trying to help, Deacon,” I said. “Let’s not talk about this now.”

  Deacon released his grip. “You said this morning your dad gave you strict religious rules. Is that what you mean?”

  His face was up in flame now, his eyes an incoming hurricane. I should lie. I should just agree with his guess.

  But I didn’t want us to start whatever we were starting with a lie.

  “No,” I sighed. “I mean what he did when I broke those rules.”

  “What did he do?”

  “Depends. If I was lucky and it was something small like questioning something he’d said, I’d go a day without food. If he caught me saying something unbiblical, then he might lock me in the cellar over the weekend.”

  A steady red grew on Deacon’s tan face. This was supposed to be the small stuff, but maybe it wasn’t. The words wouldn’t stop coming though.

  “Once, when I was young my mom tried to slip me some food. I’d been locked in the basement and given nothing to eat cause I was reading some cartoon about evolution. He…he beat her in front of me. He told me it was my fault for driving my mother to weakness.”

  Deacon’s chest was heaving now, but I couldn’t stop. I’d buried all this when I left. Even Mira hadn't heard of some of it. Bringing it up was hard, but seeing his rage helped.

  “She didn’t help after that. Not even the time I gave a sermon at his church and forgot some of my lines and he whipped me with his belt. Not even when he found me holding hands with a boy there and burned my palm with a lighter.”

  There was more, but nothing to top that. I couldn't even call the memory to mind. I’d blanked out from the pain. It was strange, the things we forget and the things we keep.

  I lay silent.

  “I didn’t notice a thing,” Deacon said softly. “I know your body by heart and I didn’t see the signs.”

  “He always knew the right spots to leave no marks. He said they were punishments of the soul, not the body. Mostly, I think he didn’t want his church to see how he kept his perfect evangelical daughter in line. I guess that’s one thing I can be happy for.”

  I chuckled, but Deacon just twirled a skewer in his hand with a dark look.

  “Tell me he’s in prison,” he said.

  “He’s not.”

  “Why not?”

  “I told you, he got me believing I earned all of it.” A heaviness overtook my breath. “I mean, there was one time I almost ran away. I’d been beaten especially hard for something. I can’t remember what. But I do remember packing up a bunch of clothes and some money.”

  “He caught you?”

  I sighed, sinking onto my elbows. “No, the house was empty. I could have left. But I got to the front door and his words came rushing back in my ears. If I stepped out, then I was on the path to hell and damnation.”

  I peered up at him.

  “There were so many chances for me to just leave. But I never could. That was how deep in my head he was. The one moment of clarity I had, and it lasted ten minutes before I ran back and unpacked.”

  “He kept you obedient.” Deacon said. “That's almost worse than his physical crimes. So why is he not serving time? You did break free.”

  “After I left them in college, I told Mira and she tried to get me to file charges, but by then-” I held up my palm. “There was no proof. I got angrier about it all, but then I just wanted to leave it all behind.”

  Deacon’s shoulders shook with rage. He tore out his phone. “I know people in the FBI. They’ll get him for something. He wants religion? I am going to rain hell fire down on him.”

  “No!” I grabbed his forearm. He scowled up at me, eyes filled with hurt and hate on my behalf.

  I should have been angry that he thought this was his fight, that he didn’t trust my solution. But the way he looked blazing with fury for me…His power felt like my own. It was a current, not a cage.

  And it was heating me up in strange ways.

  “Save it for me,” I whispered to him. “Forget him. Give me your strength.”

  He stared a long while, and his mood settled. The fire still burned in his eyes, though.

  We left the plate half-eaten and rushed for a taxi. Deacon clutched me in his arms for the short ride home. I had never felt so safe.

  The moment we were back in our room, he was literally ripping my clothes off. I wrapped around his arms and sighed as the coils of muscle thickened and took over my burdens.

  He eased me back on the bed, sliding his cock deep into the ache he had opened. Pleasure rippled through me, vast and exquisite as he fucked me slowly. His lips nibbled at mine, and his weight pinned me to the bed, covered me, shielded me.

  I had nowhere to go, nothing to do but receive what he offered, and take the seed he spilled in me, deep and hot. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  I was in his arms until the night made the city shimmer with light. I might have done nothing, but my body was split in half. I couldn’t even roll out of his grip.

  “I was going to leave tomorrow,” he said in a weary voice. “I had work to do, but I'm going to call my assistant and tell them to go fuck themselves. I don’t want you out of my sight.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, stroking his brow. “You helped me so much today. I don’t want to distract you.”

  “Little late for that,” he said, clenching me tight. “You have me now.”

  Distant tremors of fear trembled down me at the words, but I was way too spent to give them a voice.

  I had him?

  This was a man was used to fighting the world to get what he wanted. What had I done to earn his strength?

  I had no idea, but I said the easiest words I could. “Good.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Deacon

  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Kerry asked.

  “No.”

  “I can still act surprised when we get there.”

  “You trust me, don’t you?”

  “This isn’t me not trusting you, Deacon. This is me getting bored of the scenery.”

  Me, I kinda liked the what we were rolling past. Outside the oblique Land Rover window, sand skittered along at the side of the road. Only flat plants blossomed here. Texas brushland looked like the rainforest next to this place.

  Beyond the plains, tawny dunes burned bright in the sun, their forms slowly etch
ing away under the hot winds.

  There was something soothing in watching a land endlessly being swept away and reforming. It reminded you not to hold on to the wrong things, that change was the only guarantee.

  “There’s plenty of fine scenery within this car,” I said, holding her tighter in the backseat. The pretty jade sundress she had on couldn’t hide the softness of her skin from me.

  “Maybe I’m getting bored of that too.”

  She wore a smirk though, a crooked thing that stopped my heart. I hadn’t seen this type of smile till last afternoon. It was just another one of the things she kept close to her, a light that precious few ever saw.

  “Is that a fact?” I said.

  “Accountants never lie.”

  “No need to lie when you can just confuse ‘em with numbers.”

  “Right, like you’d ever miss a number with that nerd brain of yours.”

  “Strategic mind, you mean.”

  “Dirty mind, more like it.”

  Her smile broke into a grin. It had been an especially good morning, as we took turns revealing what our mouths could inflict on things other than each other’s lips.

  I kissed her back into the seat cushions. Our Yemenese driver shot us another look, but I had paid the guy up full, so screw their modesty. The amount of times he’d been checking us out – he should be paying us.

  “Guess you’re not so bored of me after all,” I said.

  “No, but I still would like to know where we’re going.”

  “Patience. Why are you so eager to fly?”

  “I’ve wasted a lot of my life,” she said. “I try to make sure I'm headed to good places only now.”

  I couldn’t hold a candle to the horrors of her youth, but her words hit me deep. I’d wasted so much of my life trying to please my family, and it had just barely paid off. This acquisition was my first big chance to strike out and show that I was more than just another Stone, rolling in a groove. I was a force unto myself. Being with Kerry just doubled down my resolve.

  The SUV drove up a hill. The sun shimmered in the windshield too bright to look at even through the tint of the glass and my shades combined.

  We crested the top. The desert bloomed ahead of me, not directly green, but green in a more important way. In a way that could change my life. In a way that could change the course of this world.

  “You see where we’re headed now?” I whispered.

  The soft breath from Kerry made me shiver. She understood.

  “Is that…Is that yours?”

  “I sure as hell hope it will be.”

  The car raced down. On our left and our right, massive square solar panels sat angled toward the sun on thick metal columns. Thousands on them, spread out in every direction for a mile ahead, all capturing the sun’s relentless force and putting it to good use.

  The panel shadows flickered across us as we dashed past. Kerry peered around her seat, eyes wide and glowing, looking like a kid entering an amusement park.

  “There’s so many,” she said.

  “Little bit prettier than numbers on a sheet right?”

  She shot me a scowl. “Numbers on a sheet are what will let you own this place.”

  “I know, darlin’. Just… it’s exciting to see the possibility here don’t you think?”

  “That – I can’t disagree with.”

  The driver turned us up towards what looked like an overgrown convenience store. There were a few pumps out front, but they provided electric charge not gasoline. Pass the glassy store front was a long garage, filled with parts for repair. A little sign up front read Habibi Solar with a sun for the ‘o.’

  The car stopped under the shaded awning. A tan, mustached man ran out the store and opened the door for us.

  “Mr. Stone!” He clasped my hands in his and shook enormously. “It’s a true pleasure. And you could not have picked a better time of the day.”

  “I know, Sayeed. That’s why we’re here now.”

  “We?”

  He glanced over as Kerry clambered out of the car and patted herself down.

  Sayeed was just a senior engineer, but ‘girlfriend’ seemed kinda crass in this culture. Hell, it might not even be true. Hadn’t checked with Kerry on that one, though it was surely the feeling in my heart.

  Then again, if I was gonna give her an untrue title… A smile came to my lips.

  “Sayeed, this is my fiancé, Kerry Martin.”

  If Kerry’s eyes were solar panels, they could have powered the Earth in that moment. Sayeed made no note of her bug-eyed look and shook her hand earnestly. “It’s an honor to meet you, too, Ms. Martin. Mr. Stone is a remarkable man, and I am sure you are just as remarkable.”

  “Thanks…”

  He clasped my hand again and led me off. “Come, come. I know what you are here to see. I know where it is best to see it.”

  Men holding hands was another cultural bit I would never appreciate. His hand was clammy, but I had to admit that his enthusiasm wasn’t far from my own. Kerry was going to love this.

  For the moment though, she stuck with shooting daggers with her eyes.

  Sayeed hustled me over to a golf car with treads. I helped Kerry in the back, then got in with her.

  “What the hell was that about?” she hissed in my ear.

  “I didn’t want his guy thinking I was just some horny, dim-witted money man if we started fooling around out here. Fiancé makes it all classy.”

  “It’s a little fast, that’s all.” Her face glowed with sudden joy. “But yes. Of course I accept!”

  I snapped to her. She batted her long lashes at me and cupped her chin with both hands.

  I laughed out hard. She had mentioned improv and now she was showing me another deep side of her. A beautiful accountant who could act? The world was full of possibility.

  Sayeed was blathering off specs and megawatts up front, but I just huddled with Kerry and watched my future solar field whisk past. We drove quickly up a small artificial hill the company had built and stopped by an extra-large junction box.

  “It’ll be just another few minutes, Mr. and future Mrs. Stone,” Sayeed said, gesturing at a small parasol set out behind the junction box. “Please, enjoy the shade. I have some water here if you would like.”

  I got out with Kerry, dashing us through the dizzying heat and into the shade. The entire solar farm spread around me like a Go board. I could have been a mote of dust, but I was at the center, in command.

  “Sayeed,” I said. “If there’s something else you need to do, please feel free.”

  His excited look dimmed a bit, but he nodded vigorously. “Certainly, Mr. Stone. I will come back and collect you when it’s over.”

  “When what’s over?” Kerry asked, as his cart dipped back down the hill.

  “The changing of the guard.”

  I thought that had given it away. Luckily, she didn’t ask more. She squinted out a moment, then put on her shades from her purse. “Did you see this place before you bought it?”

  “Of course. You know how meticulous your betrothed is.”

  She smirked. “I know an awful lot about you, my darling Deacon. But sometimes you’re too bold for your own good.”

  “Bold and strategic. I don't act unless I mean it.” I took her waist and spun her around. “You see the city from here?”

  Kerry shook her head. A few faint lines seemed to stand out in the distance, but they could have been mirages of heat.

  “That’s cause it’s not the city. The power from here doesn’t go there. Where it does go is a desalination plant. People in this country get fresh water by burning oil. It’s just lucky that they have a ton of the stuff. Now, at least they can save a little. Imagine this happening a thousand times over from Houston all the way to Los Angeles.”

  Her gaze lifted to me.

  “You’re really excited about what this place can do,” she said.

  “Well, of course, I am.”

  “I mean in general.
You believe in it. Not just for you. Not even for the company.”

  “Is my being more than a corporate bastard such a shock?”

  “You’re not greedy,” she said softly. “You're earnest. I thought it was all just an act when I first saw you with your oil guys, but it’s real, isn’t it? You're real.”

  Sweat beaded on my brow. The shade could only ward so much of the hot air around. Certainly it’d didn’t block the laser sight Kerry leveled on me now.

  “It’s a good thing,” she said quickly.

  “Depends on who you ask.” I patted her absently, thinking back to the meeting with my family. “You can guess my mom’s reaction to my notions.”

  “She doesn’t want a son who changes the world?”

  “My family doesn’t go for change, period. It’s in our name: Stone. Never yielding. But stones just makes me think of something sitting there motionless, letting the elements grind it down to sand.”

  “Sand.” Kerry nodded. “Sand can be useful. Aren’t all those panels out there made out of sand?”

  “Yes they are. Damn, you really did read up on the tech specs the company gave you.”

  “That’s why you pay me.”

  I grabbed a supple bit of her rear. “Hell, there are a thousand reasons I should be paying you.”

  She laughed and swatted me away. “The whole site can see us here.”

  “It’s just my earnest feeling that I should grab a slice of that. Can’t fault me for that, right?”

  “Later,” she said, smiling coyly. “There’ll be plenty of time.”

  A sudden chill clenched my heart. Plenty of time? No, the weekend was almost over, and I’d only had it by blowing off work. There was no time at all.

  Something tripped in the junction box, and an electric buzz sizzled the air. It was starting. This was what I wanted her to see. This company she was helping me build. It was supposed to be the most important part of my future.

  But this acquisition was just the beginning. There'd a lot more work, not all of it as noble as what I was trying to do here. It was just the beginning of my transformation.