Kiss the Kitty: (Her Dad’s Best Friend) Page 7

  Spent, she collapsed into his arms and he carried her upstairs and into the bathroom, where he stripped off the rest of his clothes and joined her in the shower.

  Things quickly turned heated from there and it wasn’t long before he took her again, this time slow and sweet.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  James

  “You have the nicest people working for you,” Katherine said, smiling up at him.

  “Yeah well, right now I want to fire them all for constantly taking you away from me.” She was charming everyone around her as usual, and he was starting to regret coming at all. Could have had her all to himself. Could have been doing wicked things to her naked body right now.

  “James,” she slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

  “Hmm…or you could save them all by coming home with me right now,” he said pulling her against him.

  “You’re the host, you can’t leave already.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “It’s my party I can do whatever I want.” Pulling her in tighter, he pressed his hard length against her, letting her feel what she was doing to him.

  “Oh…mmm….you know what? I think your right, they’ll be fine on their own. Really, we’d be doing them a favor. Nobody wants to let loose in front of their boss, right?”

  “Exactly,” he murmured against her ear, and added, “I promise, I’ll wear the glasses.”

  “Really?” She raised an eyebrow and bit her lip.

  God, he loved that look. “Oh yeah. Let’s go,” he said, about to make a fast exit, but before he got anywhere, his assistant stepped in front of him.

  “Mr. Reed—”.

  “Can’t it wait?” James interrupted before the guy could say anything else, and looked at him hopefully.

  “Um…he’s here,” was his response.

  James looked at his assistant questioningly.

  “I sent him to your office, like you requested,” he elaborated.

  “Oh right. Yes, I’ll be right there. Thank you.” James turned to Katherine. “I completely forgot for a moment, I have something important to take care of, but I won’t be long. Will you be all right?”

  Katherine smiled at him. “I’ll manage, but you’re going to make it up to me.”

  James chuckled. She would more than manage, everyone loved her, but he could hardly wait to make it up to her anyway. “I promise,” he told her and stole a kiss before he left.

  He was just about to step into the elevator when John’s furious voice stopped him. “Have you lost your Goddamn mind?”

  He turned around to find John’s expression matched his tone. “John, calm down.” James held up his hands.

  “Fuck you. Don’t act like you’re the reasonable one here.”

  “John,” James tried again.

  “No. I came here hoping one of you at least had come to your senses. Obviously, that hasn’t happened.” He gestured towards the crowd with Katherine in the middle. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, I get a call that someone has been snooping around asking questions about my daughter’s drunken night of destruction. Why the fuck, man? Why, after all the strings I’ve pulled to bury this shit, are you dragging it up again? Are you trying to get her expelled, trying to get the police involved? What? What the fu—”

  “No,” James cut him off. “Of course, I’m not trying to get her expelled, but as to the police? I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ, I’m going to have you locked up because you have gone completely insane.”

  “John, just listen to me, something wasn’t right. Things didn’t fit the story you told me, so I hired a private investigator.”

  “You hired a PI?” John looked at him as if he’d grown two heads.

  “Yes, and he’s waiting in my office right now. Come with me, listen to what he has to say. If there is nothing there, I’ll back off. All right?”

  “And you’ll stop fucking my daughter?” John winced as he bit out the words.

  “I won’t stop seeing her, no. I love her and you better get used to it,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “But that’s what this is really about isn’t it?” He narrowed his eyes on John.

  He was relieved, quite frankly, that his friend wasn’t a heartless bastard. Of course, he wasn’t, and if they hadn’t been in such a panic when he came to the house that morning, they would have realized he’d been in a good mood when he arrived, the bearer of good news and all. Oh, he might not yet have entirely forgiven Kathrine, but it was only after he’d understood what they’d been hiding from him that his temper had flared again.

  “Of course, it is,” John snapped. “I’ve put up with her shenanigans for years, but this? For fuck sakes man, you’re defiling my baby girl.”

  Okay now, that was a little much. “John,” he said in a tone that pleaded for reason. And though he refrained from adding the words you need to get over it, it was most certainly implied.

  James was never going to give Katherine up. John had to find a way to accept that.

  They stared at each other for a while. Knowing that if John didn’t do just that, it would cause irreparable damage to their friendship, most likely kill it stone dead.

  The elevator doors opened. “Give me fifteen minutes?” James said, gesturing for John to lead the way.

  He hesitated for a moment before relenting, “I’ll give you five.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Katherine

  Should she go after them, or would she only make things worse? Biting her lip, Katherine watched her dad get on the elevator with James. She’d been watching them talk. Her dad sure didn’t look happy, but James had somehow convinced him go with him. Maybe it would be better to give them a moment alone, but he was going to have to talk to her eventually.

  “Damn girl, you clean up nice.” Katherine turned around to find Paul watching her. “Not that I didn’t like the oversized sweater,” he added with a wink.

  “Paul? Oh my God what are you doing here?” Shit, that sounded rude. “I mean, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “I didn’t know if I should come, but your dad insisted,” he said.

  “Did he now?” Katherine said with a forced smile on her face.

  “Yeah well, I guess he didn’t know about you two then.” He gestured towards the elevator her dad and James had just taken. Also revealing that he’d been watching them.

  “When was this?” she asked.

  “This afternoon.”

  “He knew.” Katherine clenched her hands at her sides.

  “Oh, I assumed he just found out because of the…um...,” he trailed off.

  “The rage coming off him just now?” she finished for him.

  “Well, yeah,” he said.

  She nodded, not feeling like discussing the topic any further, which Paul seemed to sense.

  “Anyway, he’s a lucky guy,” he said and looked down at his feet for a moment before his gaze met hers again. “Katherine, do you think we can go somewhere and talk?”

  “Paul…” she said hesitantly.

  “Look, I know I wasted my chance — your dad is the only one who still has hopes for us — but it’s not about that, I just need to talk to you.”

  “Oh, um…okay.”

  He smiled and grabbed to flutes of champagne of a waiter’s tray as he passed. “Here, have a drink with me,” he said, handing her one.

  Katherine reached out to accept the glass and froze with her hand mid-air as a line played in her head; Here, I brought you a drink.

  “So, do you want to go somewhere a little more private?” Paul asked.

  Katherine barely registered his question, the glass in her hand claiming her attention, and she couldn’t tear her eyes off it.

  “Katherine…Katherine?”

  She blinked a few times. “Yeah…um… sure,” she mumbled.

  “Are you all right? Where did you just go?”

  “Oh sorry, it was just…um...Déjà vu, I think. So weir
d.”

  “Ah,” Paul said, took her arm and began leading her away from the crowd.

  They weren’t far from one of the balcony doors. “How about some fresh air?” Katherine suggested.

  She felt Paul stiffen besides her, it was only for a split second, but it was enough to jolt something in her mind.

  ‘…No, I want some fresh air. I feel really strange.’

  ‘Come on Katherine, just go to bed. Sleep it off.’

  ‘Sleep it off? What are you talking about? I had one drink. Just need to get outside for a minute. Feeling kind of woozy. Seriously, my head’s all loopy.’

  Her mind was flooded with memories. Many of them only fuzzy bits and pieces from that night, not unlike the nightmares, but there was a significant difference. Now she knew someone else was there. Paul.

  She pulled away from him. “You son of a bitch,” she bit out, her tone low and lethal.

  His eyes widened. “Oh fuck,” he said, realizing she knew what had happened. “Katherine, please listen.” He held up his hands. “It’s not what you think.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  James

  “So, in layman’s terms, she was drugged?” James asked the PI, who had been telling them about Katherine’s blood test from the night in question.

  Before the guy had a chance to answer, John cut in. “Drugged? how do you know she didn’t do that to herself? Jesus Christ, how gullible are you?”

  “For fuck sakes, John. He just told us it was a concoction that could result in severe hallucinations and paranoia,” James said.

  “That doesn’t mean she didn’t take it herself.” John folded his arms over his chest.

  James resisted the urge to punch his friend right in the nose, and turned to the PI. “Let’s go through it, what exactly happened?”

  “All right,” the guy pulled out a map of the college campus and began. “Campus security caught her on camera here,” he pointed on a map, “here, and here.”

  Pointing back to the first spot, he said, “Here, we have her stumbling down the street alone. This is right after she bumped into a parked car, and broke off the side mirror. I’ll get back to that.”

  He pointed on the second spot on the map. “Here, we see her turn down this street, towards the building that houses campus security. Around here,” he tapped on the map, “she trips and falls backwards into some bushes. She struggles to get up, but her shirt appears to get caught on the branches. She panics and tears off the shirt to free herself. She then runs down the street to this building here,” he indicated the spot on the map, “just beside campus security, which might be where she actually intended to go. The building was in the process of being emptied out for construction, but for some reason the door wasn’t locked. She runs inside. Not long after, the security alarm is triggered and moments later, security find her passed out in a pile of books and knocked over bookcases.”

  John had been standing with his arms crossed looking bored while the PI spoke. “I don’t know what you’re paying this guy, but there is nothing new here.”

  “Well, I wanted to know the details,” James told him.

  “Fine, but I already cleared this up. That door being unlocked was on them, and there was no evidence that she was the one who knocked over those bookcases. The nurse checked her out and found nothing to suggest that she had been assaulted. She was severely intoxicated, anyone could see that, but blood tests take time to process. That might have been to our benefit. No one had reason to assume that we weren’t talking about plain old alcohol here. Nothing illegal. Case closed. But you dragging up the results of this blood test, revealing possible illegal drug use that she more than likely engaged in of her own free volition, isn’t going to work in her favor.”

  “But you can’t be sure there wasn’t anyone else involved,” James retorted.

  John huffed in exasperation. “I haven’t seen anything that suggests that either. Come on man, can’t you see that this was in all probability a failed attempt at looking like a victim? People have been known to do that to get out of something. And guess what, she had a commitment the day after.”

  “Related to the internship, I know,” James said.

  “Yeah, and maybe she wasn’t as prepared as she’s been saying. Maybe this was a ploy to buy more time.”

  “Even if that were the case, there are easier ways of doing that. She could have asked for an extension.”

  “She could have, but where’s the drama in that. I’m telling you, she is turning into her mother. This is exactly the kind of irresponsible shit she would pull—”

  “John,” James cut him off, before he got into a full-blown rant. “It is completely beside the point. I’ve heard her presentation. It was solid. Would have hired her myself if she’d let me.”

  “Well, then maybe she just didn’t want it, or any at all. I Just found out, from a reliable source, that she’d been offered a different, but no less relevant, internship at The Westmore Group, and she turned it down. Are you seeing the pattern?” he asked but didn’t wait for an answer. “She just wants to wander through life without any responsibility, just like her mother. I’m losing her, man. I thought we were in such a good place, then she does all this shit, and now this thing with you…” he trailed off, looking down and shaking his head.

  “Good God, John. That is just not true. And for fuck sakes, she isn’t deliberately trying to hurt you. Enough of this ridiculousness,” James said and changed the subject. “About this other internship, did you ever think maybe she wanted to earn it? and this reliable source of yours, was it Paul by any chance?”

  “He’s been trying to help her,” John said.

  “Excuse me,” the PI cut in, “is this Paul Westmore you’re talking about?”

  “Yes, and my future son-in-law if this guy hadn’t swooped in.” He pointed at James.

  They eyed each other, both ready to launch into another argument when the PI spoke up. “Gentlemen, may I finish,” he said in an irritated tone.

  “Please.” James gestured for him to continue.

  “As I mentioned, she bumped into a parked car—”

  “Yeah,” John interrupted, “that was a damn expensive side mirror, but I already paid for the damages. They’re not coming after us for that.” John clearly had a mind to go on, but seeing the look on the PI’s face, decided against it. “Sorry,” he said. “Continue.”

  “Thank you,” the PI said, clearly annoyed at constantly being interrupted. “But yes, this was no rust bucket. The car was equipped with hidden security cameras that were activated the moment your girl bumped into the car. I convinced the owner to let me have a look at the recording. And it turns out, she wasn’t alone at that point. There was a guy there, and it appeared he was trying to persuade her to go with him, but she wasn’t having any of it. He kept looking around himself and finally, just left her there and took off in the opposite direction. Probably worried about the attention the car alarm was drawing. I was able to identify the guy as Paul Westmore. Here.” He held up his phone, showing a picture of a man with a panicky expression on his face. The picture was grainy, but there was no mistake, it was Paul.

  “The fuck?” John bit out. “He told me he wasn’t anywhere near her that night.”

  “Really? Well she remembered him being at the house. I swear, if that little shit…” James trailed off as he saw the expression on John’s face. “What?”

  “I invited him.” He looked a James with horror in his eyes, his face pale as a sheet. “He’s with her right now.”

  “Jesus Christ!”

  “Call security,” John barked.

  James was already on his way out the door, phone to his ear.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  James

  “Do you have eyes on her yet?” he yelled into the phone as they stepped of the elevator.

  “Sir…yes, I think we do. There appears to be a situation by balcony four. Guards are on their way.”

  “Balcony fou
r!” he called to John and they rushed through the mass of mingling party guests.

  James’ heart pounded in his chest. If anything had happened to her. If that idiot had laid one finger on her. There would be no mercy.

  As they got closer, it seemed the crowd was gravitating in the same direction they were headed, towards one of the balconies.

  “You son of a bitch.” They heard Katherine yell as they pushed their way through the crowd, and finally got a clear view of the scene.

  Paul was flat on his back, trying to fend off a raging mad Katherine on top of him. She was straddling him and poking at him with a stiletto.

  John was about to intervene. “Wait,” James said with a hand on his shoulder, halting him. “Let’s wait just a minute, she’s got this.

  “Please stop. I’m sorry. Please stop,” Paul cried out as he flailed his hands in the air, blocking her jabs at him.

  Katherine stopped only to shout at him, “You’re sorry? You’re sorry? You drugged me, you were going to get me expelled, and you’re sorry?” She was holding up her shoe ready to strike again.

  “Please don’t, please don’t.” Paul held his hands up in defense. “I didn’t think it would go that far. You were just supposed to pass out.”

  “Were you going to rape me?”

  “No, no, no. God no, I wasn’t going to do that. I swear, I wasn’t. My mom usually just passes out for a day or so when she takes the stuff, but I guess I must have taken the wrong mix of pills or something. But come on, how the hell was I supposed to know you would react like that?”

  “So, it’s my fault?” Katherine yelled.

  “Well, kind of. You weren’t giving me a chance, I had to do something.”

  “You deranged psycho.” She threatened with the shoe again.

  “Wait, wait, wait…you’re not getting it. I was going to save your ass. You were just supposed to oversleep, miss the presentation, and then you wouldn’t get the internship. I had another one set up for you. All you had to do was take it, but then you had to ruin it with your pride and shit.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? You did all this so I’d owe you? You think that was going to make me fall for you?”