Claimed Harder by Em Brown
Chapter 13
DARREN
Past
“Can you believe fucking Manny Wu?” JD asks me through my speakerphone as I drive back to the city after dropping Bridget off at her apartment. It took all of me not to grab her and throw her in the backseat for a quickie before she left, but there’s a lot she feels she needs to accomplish before Phuket.
“Wants me to help him with his massage parlors, but he’s not fronting any money,” JD continues. “Not a fucking dime.”
“What’s wrong with you getting a percentage?” I ask.
“Like I’d trust the Park Street Boyz to give me the right cut. Manny swears they’re legit, but that’s Manny’s problem: he believes shit too easily. Man, he would not shut the fuck up last night. Luckily, Amy was in the restroom most of the time and too drunk to understand what was going on when she got back. I finally told him flat out I’m not doing anything for him. You know what he said?”
“No,” I reply, my mind half on the homework assignment I had given Bridget, to work up to the middle setting on the wand.
“He asked me, ‘Why the fuck not?’ So I told him the truth. That he’s a loser. He’s struck out too many times in the past, he doesn’t even belong in the Rookie league.”
“Poor Manny.”
“Someone’s got to tell him the truth. Why you gotta feel bad for Manny, anyway? The guy’s pathetic. Oh, speaking of pathetic, my sister shared an updated guest list and Joseph Mok is coming. Guess he and the groom roomed together at USC.”
Mok and I had a run-in years ago when I was hanging out with Tony Lee at a bar in Vietnam. I had started hitting on a woman I didn’t know was with Mok because she had seemed receptive of my attentions. Mok took offense. He kept glaring at me through the night as he drank beer after beer. I had one too many drinks as well, so when Mok and his friend came up to me and Tony, I didn’t even attempt diplomacy. Not sure I would have even if I wasn’t intoxicated.
I ended up with a black eye, just before I broke Mok’s nose. All four of us were hauled into jail, though Tony’s brother got us out earlier so I had the chance to flipMok off as I left. The next day, I happened to come across Mok’s woman walking out of a tea shop and ended up sleeping with her. Not sure if Mok ever found out, and I don’t give a shit if he did or didn’t.
“I don’t have a problem with him as long as he stays out of my way,” I say. “By the way, you get your sister a wedding gift yet?”
“I still got time. What did you get her?”
“Cheryl put together a little Hawaiian vacation package.”
“Shit. I got to get someone like Cheryl working for me. It’s not like my sister needs anything from me, though. Her boring-ass husband can buy whatever they need.”
Andrea, JD’s sister, is marrying an entrepreneur who recently sold his start-up to a Fortune 100 company for nine figures.
“How long you plan on staying in Phuket?” JD asks.
“Maybe ten days, though I’m not sure Bridge can stay that long.”
“Will you listen to yourself? What should it matter how long she can stay?”
“She’s got a job and an internship. She wasn’t sure she could go in the first place.”
“What is the matter with her? Doesn’t she know you could have invited a hundred different women to go instead?”
“That wouldn’t matter to her.”
I can hear JD shaking his head. “You picked a doozy. Her pussy must be something special.”
Oh, it is.
As I pass through the toll booth and onto the Bay Bridge, it starts to rain. The forecast for the week is wet and cold, but I’ll be in warm, sunny Thailand soon enough.
Earlier, I had taken a photo of Bridget on my phone and sent it off to Cheryl for the passport. I had expected Bridget to protest that she didn’t look her best, but after she had washed her face and brushed her hair, she was ready to go. Kimberly would have taken at least half an hour to do her makeup and another half an hour to do her hair.
Later that day, I text Bridget to see if she had tried the wand I gave her. She replied that she was working on a paper for her health policy class. I asked if she had gotten anyone to cover her shifts at the library. She hadn’t. I told her she had better try or I would come over and apply the wand to her myself.
An hour later, she texted that she’d found someone to cover at least one of her shifts.
I tell her to call me when she’s ready to use the wand.
After spending some time going over the trip to Thailand with Cheryl, I wander over to the BDSM side of the club. I watch a dominatrix peg her sub while he licks the pussy of another woman. I wonder again if Bridget has ever had anal sex. I don’t have a good sense of her overall experience with all things sex. She had mentioned a boyfriend once. Some football player. Sounded like they had dated a while, but they were younger at the time. Bridget’s still young. She can’t even legally drink yet. I haven’t dated anyone in college since I was in college myself.
Deciding the scenes are turning me on too much, I go back to the regular side of The Lotus where I’m approached by Tommy, a longtime family friend, to hold a suitcase for Old Dog, a known assassin. I’m guessing the suitcase contains cash, but, per my usual M.O., I don’t ask.
“You’re the only one I trust to turn this over to,” Tommy tells me. “You’re dependable, just like your dad. The triad should have you take over for your dad. I get that you were in school at the time, but that job should be yours now. You’ve a right to it. I keep telling the Vanguard that the guy they have heading up counterfeiting right now just isn’t as good.”
“I’ve been approached by Lee Hao Young about it,” I reveal as I place the suitcase in a safety vault in my office and have one of my security guards stand watch.
“About damn time! That’s great!”
“I haven’t said yes yet.”
Tommy does a double-take. “Why not?”
“It’s the last thing my mother would want me to do.”
“Look, I like your mother, but women get scared easily. It’s part of their genetics, and she’s right to want to protect her only son. But what happened to your father was a fluke. I’ll talk to her. Let her know you’d have a lot of people, like myself, looking out for you.”
My mother likes and respects Tommy.
“You were meant for bigger things than this club,” Tommy adds.
I cock my head at him. “You know my mother. She rarely changes her mind.”
“Yeah, I know. Sharon is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. But, ultimately, you don’t need her approval.”
“I know that.”
I think back to the nights I heard her sobbing in her room after my father died. I didn’t want to go back to UCLA at the time, but I did it mostly for her. My father had wanted me to get a college degree, too. Not because it would help me with the triad but because, in stereotypical Chinese style, he regarded it as a badge of honor. And I shied away from getting too involved in the Jing San business because of her. But it has been several years since my father died, and I’m getting bored with The Lotus. I’m ready for a new challenge, and my father would have wanted me to continue his legacy.
“Besides, you want to make your father proud, right?” asks Tommy.
I let out a breath and find myself wishing Bridget was coming to the club tonight. “Yeah,” I answer.
Tommy claps me on the back. “Maybe you’ll make an even bigger mark on the Jing San than your old man. Then all you need is a wife and kids.”
I must have balked, because he laughs. “I know, I know. You’re still young. Enjoy the women while you can.”
I raise a brow. “You’re married. That hasn’t stopped you.”
“True. Your dad was strangely devoted to your mother, but you could be more like me instead.”
Tommy chuckles at his own statement before taking his leave.
I walk up the stairs to my balcony and find JD on a call.
“Fuck! Another one?” he curses into his phone. “What do you expect me to do about it? Shit! We’ll just have to take it as a loss.”
JD kicks the coffee table after hanging up.
“Baijiu?” I offer.
“Shit, yeah,” JD responds.
I wave to one of my servers.
JD flops down on a lounge chair and, throwing his head back, rubs his eyes.
“Amy coming tonight?” I ask.
“Later. She has to work tonight at the restaurant. Says she’s missed too many shifts lately.”
I consider seeing if Bridget would come with her friend, but I want Bridget to get her work done so she has no excuses for not going to Phuket.
JD pulls out his cigarette case.
“You know the rules,” I tell him.
“It’s just one smoke.”
“I don’t want to get busted on some small shit.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Like how they got Al Capone on taxes.”
“I’ve got marijuana if you want that.”
“Hell, yeah.”
After the server delivers the baijiu, I tell her to get JD some weed.
JD downs a shot of baijiu, then another.
“You pound too much of that with the weed, you’re not going to be able to get it up for Amy,” I warn.
“Yeah, yeah. You getting any tonight? You want Amy to bring Bridget with her?”
“I don’t need to pound pussy every single night.”
“If you can, why not?”
“Bridget has to finish a paper for class.”
“You’re lucky; you can just walk over to the other side of your club to get booty.”
It’s true. I could. But I’m more interested in finding out how Bridget gets on with the wand.
A mutual friend, Alejandro, comes up to the balcony to jaw with us and smoke some pot. Amy arrives about the time the two of them are too stoned to hold a real conversation. JD offers her a joint, which she accepts.
“Aren’t you going to say anything about my outfit?” Amy asks. “I just got it today.”
With his eyes glazed over, JD looks over her strappy top and leopard-print skirt. “Hella sexy. Right, Alejandro?”
Alejandro nods. “Name’s Alejandro. What’s yours, chica?”
“Amy.”
He jerks his head toward JD. “You’re not with that loser, are you?”
She giggles. “Actually, I am.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Alejandro rolls his head to me. “You got anyone for tonight?”
I shake my head.
“You can have me,” Alejandro jokes.
“Sure, but I only pitch,” I reply.
He pours himself a shot of baijiu. “Ah, you’re no fun.”
Being a cheap date, Amy doesn’t take long to get high. Knowing that Marshall or someone else from the security team will keep an eye on JD, I head upstairs to my residence and video call Bridget.
“How’s the paper coming?” I ask after casting the video call onto the flat-screen TV above the fireplace. I sit down on the sofa.
“Pretty good,” she replies. Her hair is in a ponytail and she wears a Cal hoodie.
“How long you been working on it?”
“Since dinner. Hey, you think you could get me the recipe for that rice and mango dessert? I’d love to make it for my roommates.”
“Sure. But you got to use the wand first.”
She purses her lips. “I share a room.”
“Not at the moment. Amy’s here at the club.”
“Already?”
“Yep.”
“I thought she’d stop by here first.”
“So I think it’s time for a wand break.”
She hesitates.
“Where’s the wand?” I ask.
Her cheeks turn color. I love the way she blushes.
“In the closet,” she answers.
“Get it.”
After a brief pause, she goes to close her bedroom door first, then retrieves the box with the wand.
I put my arms over the back of the sofa and settle into the leather upholstery. “What are you wearing besides a hoodie?”
“Baggy sweats.”
Not the sexiest thing but functional for my purposes.
“Take the wand out and put it in your sweats,” I instruct.
“You want me to do all this in front of you? I thought I was going to report back to you after I was done using it.”
“You missed your window.”
She glares at me. “I wasn’t aware I had a time limit.”
“Now you know. Like I said, you can do it. Or you can wait for me to come over and jam that thing between your legs for you.”
Now she scowls. I try not to laugh.
She grabs the wand from the box.
“Move your phone so I can see,” I tell her.
She pauses. “You’re not recording this or anything?”
“No. Recording shit isn’t my thing. I like my sex live—preferably in person.”
Satisfied, she holds her camera in one hand while she nestles the wand in her sweats with the other.
“Nice,” I praise. “Now turn it on.”
She turns it onto the lowest setting, then whimpers as the wand hums quietly in her sweats.
“Put the phone back so I can see your face,” I say.
Seeing the helpless pout on her features makes my cock stretch. I adjust myself. “That feel good?”
After a long pause, she answers, “Yes.”
“Are you leaving it in place or moving it around?”
“In place.”
“How fast do you think it would take you to come?”
Her brow furrows. “I don’t know.”
“Where do the vibrations feel best? On your clit? Your pussy lips?”
“Um, everywhere.”
“You want to try the next setting?”
She shakes her head.
“Try the next setting,” I direct.
She looks as if she’s struggling against something.
“Bridge, try the next setting. Don’t make me ask twice.”
“Okay. Just…”
She takes a moment, braces herself, and increases the setting. Her mouth immediately drops open. I know she wouldn’t try to trick me. Plus, I can hear the faster, louder vibration.
“Oh my God,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Hang on. Don’t come just yet.”
She shakes her head and squints her eyes.
“You always have to ask first.”
But she has no time. With a cry, she starts to spasm. The phone clatters to the floor. I hear her soft wail, and then light panting. No longer pressed against her flesh, the wand sounds louder. A moment later, it’s turned off.
Heat swirls in my loins as I imagine her pussy pulsing from the climax. After a minute or so, she collects herself and picks up the phone.
“What just happened?” I ask.
“I came,” she replies weakly.
“Was it a good one?”
She nods.
I smile. “Good.”
I decide not to point out that she didn’t ask to come, which entails a punishment in my book. I’ll save that for when she’s back over at my place.
