- Chapter Thirteen -

Dirt And Diamonds

Ear so close to the door that getting a splinter was an inevitability, the woman couldn't hear anything on the other side, but that didn't mean that she could relax. Arms feeling itchy like something was crawling up her skin beneath the crisp fabric of her stark white dress shirt, it took all that remained of her attention and will power to stay in control and remember that there wasn't. Palms to the wood so that they couldn't snake around to wipe away bugs that weren't there, not pressing too hard was another fine line she was skirting. She couldn't say that she had ever personally been victim of getting caught like in come dumb sitcom, however the bespectacled coordinator had recently discovered that the doors around this place had a way of just giving in...

As of late she suspected that Mr. Adler was biding his time, waiting to catch her slip up just once. So far her record spoke for itself, but she feared it was becoming obvious that she was losing perspective on what was work and what was personal. How could she not be terrified of the repercussions when what little free time she alloted for herself was still spent around her employer's son? Rafe Adler didn't need a bodyguard by any means, and many felt that hiring on a meek little woman to tail him around was a fair compromise, however it hadn't taken long for her eyes to rove and her interests to align less with what his parents asked and more towards what the young man wanted.

Stomach growling to remind the woman that it was still there - if only barely - she ignored the rumbling and willed herself to be closer.

Torture having to endure the snide comments and snickers, it was even worse watching him just stroll passed like she wasn't anything more than the furniture. It was what she was being paid for, but these days it felt like the only part of her job description that was being honored - Bai had stopped reporting every breath the multi-billionaire took, and not only had she began to covertly mule for the son but had hid, omitted, and downright lied to her boss. She tried to tell herself that it was because she had faith in Rafe's goals and found him to be a better leader, but she was only lying to herself at that point.

Gorgeous, blonde, and everything that she wasn't, the flavor of the night was really only there to set up some kind of deal, however only a complete imbecile couldn't see that there would be more than an agreement and a changing of hands. Ordinarily Bai had a tolerance of about three cracks before she snapped, however tonight was different. Clawing the sides of her arms as she gave in to the imaginary itch, the lack of food was making her nauseous, which in turn was making her irritable. Too much time had passed between doses, and as a result she had ripped into the doorman when his only offense had been asking her if she was alright.

Tonight, she only had a limit of two personal attacks. Names not a common thing around there, on the drive back to the estate the fling had hit just the right button by inquiring if it was frustrating having to stand idle and listen to Rafe making time with literally everyone else but her. When Bai had deigned to respond to that, the blonde had rubbed it in her face by smirking as she pawed at the icy-eyed young man. Frankly he seemed uninterested in the whole thing, but the sight of him being touched by another rankled worse than any omniscient jab could.

Bai's response had been to cut the other female down by pointing out her physical flaws before they could retreat into room. Once the morning came, the real vengeance would come she made the accusation of the harlot being a common kleptomaniac in addition to a trollop. The beautiful thing was that as the head of security, she had the power to erase undesirables and very rarely had to answer for it.

Surprising both women when he elected to speak up, before retreating into the privacy of his room Rafe had stopped to thank Bai. Running her team ragged to prepare for the grand party that would close out the week, security had been extra tight, but never in her wildest dreams would she have expected the young man to address her directly in front of company. More shocking still was him inquiring if she might come speak to him once the blonde left. That ruffled the strumpet.

Left with a smile, as she waited for the appointed time to come the joy had been replaced with dread. What if it was only to berate her for some wrong she didn't realize she had done? It could have just as easily been to have her test out the latest batch that was going into circulation at the start of the following month, however even considering the risks that would have been too good to be true. When he gave her her cut at the end of the night there was never any preamble, and tonight he had explicitly requested her to come by. Perhaps he had at long last caught on to the pathetic way her eyes would follow him around the room and was merely showing pity when he presented the invitation. Speaking of invites, it was most likely to do with his birthday. Of course it was only going to be about the party.

Right?

Fingers rubbing the sides of her arms, by the time the blonde had been sent away to slink off to hide beneath whatever rock she had crawled out from underneath, Bai was getting desperate. She had had all night to partake, yet she didn't. Despite the attraction she was (not so) secretly harboring in her breast, there was still the ingrained sense of duty that kept her relatively clean on the clock. Sure, there were times that she had failed miserably and lost herself in the snowfall, and the more she did the harder it was getting to hold off, but she knew had to see him later. If she got high before the meeting, the chances of her trying something on him shot up considerably. In fact it had probably already happened and she had been so mortified that her mind had been wiped of the incident, but her restraint was wearing thin and the cycle was gearing up to come back around.

Eyes like sapphires darting back and forth at voices that weren't there - most of which jeered her every decision - she strolled into the room as if she owned the place. That would never happen, but when it came to her job the woman had never lacked for a show of bravado. "Rafe?" Calling out for the young man as to not catch him off guard and earn a bullet hole, she felt inclined to remind him that he had wanted to see her, "I'm here."

Head tilted back as he stared up at the ceiling, he motioned over to the woman for her to join him on the circular white leather couch. Breathing softly, if he hadn't moved his hand to gesture her forward, Bai would have thought that he was asleep. Lounging there in a tight navy shirt that clung to his lean muscle, a part of her wished that he had been... although if that had been the case, she couldn't be certain that she wouldn't have taken advantage of the situation.

Glad that he wasn't underage, she shoved her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and approached the sofa. They were a bit too bulky for her taste, but she'd gotten positive feedback on the look, so she had opted to stick with it. "You wanted to see me?"

Fingers playing the notes to Portishead's "Glory Box" on an imaginary grand piano, Rafe continued to stare up at the vaulted ceiling. In the gloom before the dawn, there was no knowing for sure what the top of the room looked like, only that it was as far away as the sky outside. What he was seeing on the domed canvas was known only to him, but whatever it was, he seemed to be in a good mood.

"I've been watching you." Moving only his lips to form the individual letters, for how relaxed he was it sounded like the words had been carefully rehearsed. "You're a hard one to read." Concise as his words were, a lot of care had been taken to chose just the right phrases to use. Bai didn't think she was worth his time, due solely to the fact that he had never before gave any indication that she was more than a necessary evil to endure. "You turned down my father when he offered to buy you your own place."

That? Bai had spent a considerable amount of time getting to where she was, and even though in an ideal world she would stay with the family until the end, she knew better than to be owned. Mr. Adler was notorious for finding every last possible way to buy his high-level employees to ensure that they were less inclined to double-cross him. Growing up she had been property, so it was not a role she wished to repeat. Instead, to demonstrate her fealty she had reached a compromise to rent one of the countless guest rooms in the estate. The proximity to her ward was a happy stroke of luck, due entirely to Mrs. Adler masquerading her own fears of her husband's roving eye as concern for her son.

Details of the arrangements between the philandering Lothario and the leggy immigrant all made verbally, Rafe had been unable to uncover a paper trail that painted the picture of who Bai was. Planting surveillance in her room and having the head of his security team followed covertly hadn't yielded any meaningful discoveries that he deemed to be particularly relevant. Down the line, perhaps he could manipulate the fact that the woman rented a storage space near the docks and received frequent payments for hair and other regular donations.

For now, he had to acknowledge that words were cheap and couldn't be depended upon - he needed to know if she was on his level through her own actions. About to explain her reasoning for refusing the standard housing agreement to Rafe, he interrupted her before she had the chance, "I have something for you." As he had been taught from watching his mother, there was nothing a woman loved more than receiving expensive gifts.

Automatically her line of sight darted to the rows of man-made starlight at his side. Want and need one in the same at that stage, her tongue rolled across her teeth at the thought of getting lost in all that quality product. He noticed the way her demeanor shifted at his words, that her nostrils flared and her shaking became a continuous shiver. Amused by how intensely she thought she required the drug, though it wasn't the gift had had in mind, it was within his power to give her her fix.

"How badly do you want it?" Enthralled by the prospects, he sat upright and beckoned his glorified babysitter to come join him, to not stand so far back as she attempted to keep up the illusion of being professional when in fact she was cracking at every edge. Obeying without a second thought, when she approached the sofa he stopped her from sitting down by snatching her wrist. "First things first."

Grip tight and with no indication of letting up, he guided her to his knee; understanding his meaning Bai didn't object when her hand was dragged along the clinging material of his dark jeans and up the seams of his thigh. Quieter than she would have expected, there was a tug in her navel urging her to pull away, the paranoia feasting in her mind at every turn chiming in to tell her that this could have been a test. And if it was? Conditioned to believe that this was all wrong, the larger part of herself knew that there was no reason to deny what was about to happen when it was being offered on a silver platter. Besides, they always said that it felt better when it was forbidden.

Chest tightening as the anticipation mingled with the hesitation that came with fearing this was only a hallucination, Bai distantly saw her palms tremble and start to sweat as she reached out to use his shoulder to steady her decent. Elbows offering nothing in terms of resistance as she glided through space and time as if in a dream, she jumped when the air conditioning kicked to life, her neck craning around for a second look. She could have screamed at herself for peeling her gaze off of the multi-billionaire, off the waiting lines of coke that were plentiful enough to write out her name. This was all she desired and nothing she deserved.

Zipper in her grasp and a mere motion away from giving with the slightest pull, Rafe paused the young woman by hooking a finger beneath her chin. Tilting her head back into the light, he was surprised to see that in the midst of all the storming shades of cobalt in her iris there were also islands of lush jade. "That's too easy. I want you to use your teeth."

About to remove her glasses so that she needn't worry about damaging them in some way, he shook his head to stop her again. "Leave them on."

Well, as her health plan was so good she supposed that she could always purchase another pair if need be. Dropping her shoulders with a roll that momentarily accentuated the cleavage visible from his position on high, the woman crossed her arms behind her back so that she wasn't tempted to use them again, as that was something he clearly had no current interest in. Just as she was beginning to wonder which of the two items on the sofa was controlling her actions more, the icy eyed young man was hit with an idea.

"Turn around for a moment."

Simple as the command was, she wasn't sure that she understood. A million and one horrible things running through her mind, stealing another glance at the powder on the cushion Bai did as she was told and pivoted around so that she was facing the line of black-and-whites on the far wall. Under the best of circumstances the subject matter was unsettling to the average person, but the collection only served to enhance the crawling blush she could feel spreading up her face as her arms were bound by his belt. Leather tight and cutting into her flesh, whatever misgivings she had were quickly replaced by arousal. Did he know that she liked this sort of thing, or was it merely coincidence?

Back facing him before he could give the order, he was conflicted about whether or not he approved of her taking the initiative. He certainly enjoyed what came next.

Tip coated in a chunky layer of white rocks, her nose was trickling a steady scarlet line the next time her head surfaced for air. Floating on cloud nine and feeling invincible, were it not for the fact that her hands were still bound she would have turned the tables on the boy and showed him exactly why he'd be crazy to ever walk away from her. Licking her lips at the look on his face, on second thought she still just might teach him that lesson...

Pleasure out of the way, that only left business to attend to. Unable to find the weight necessary to stand up by himself at the moment, once she had gotten her fill of the early winter and was no longer quivering like a leaf caught in a strong breeze from the withdrawal, he directed her attention to the gift bag perched atop the edge of his writing desk. The package had been sitting there for the past three days, and frankly it was getting tiresome looking at the striped tissue paper. "For you."

Baffled blind by all the generosity she was experiencing in one night, the woman cautiously edged to the workspace as if the gift waiting on top of the table contained a bear trap. Shimmering even in the harsh lighting of the candy apple desk lamp, the outer bag was stamped with the unmistakable logo of Mrs. Adler's favorite jewelery store. An ordinary man would either be using the package secondhand or as a mean-spirited joke, but Rafe was anything but ordinary.

Bear trap still a distinct possibility, the bespectacled dope fiend fumbled with the narrow straps as she carried the bag back to Rafe to open for her. Already knowing what was inside, he tore into the contents carelessly where she would have slowly widened the opening and tenderly pushed the tissue paper out of her way. Good or bad, it wasn't everyone that could say that they had gotten a wrapped gift from Rafe Adler.

"Do you like it?" Leaning back once more to ask the question, he quirked his mouth in a self-satisfied smirk when she saw the necklace. Letting out a little gasp that eclipsed the last time anything had done it for her, he could only assume that she was speechless and in love with it. "I want you to wear it Saturday." It went without saying that this was how she would prove to him that she supported his ambitions.

Exquisite and something that you would only see on the richest of the rich or in a movie, a necklace of no less than a hundred tiny diamonds sparkled within the velvet box. Even if it had been fake, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. He easily could have sprung for jewels bigger than her fist and still had pocket change to burn, but he listened when she commented glibly on his mother's anniversary portrait. Anything bigger than two karats was just ostentatious and an invitation for the wrong sort of trouble. He listened to me. He actually had listened when she thought she was talking to air!

Her heart caught in her ribcage. "I can't accept this."

Face contorting as he tried to wrap his head around the alien syllables that had just escaped from her lips, Rafe had to suddenly wonder about the enthusiasm and gusto behind her actions fifteen minutes ago. If she had just been using him to get her hands on the blow, he had truly mistaken the type of woman she was. Reviewing the kinds of things Bai kept around (his assumption being to entertain herself with on lonely nights), the illegal footage she had taken of him without his consent was completely at odds with the words coming out of her mouth now. She wanted him - all of him - so why she wasn't jumping at his gesture and twisting it in her head to mean something more than it did was... well, unexpected.

Necklace a means to get a better read on the woman and what it was that she was really after (attraction only went so far, so finding worn out VHS tapes of himself as the star had only factored in to his calculations so much), the real trial wasn't set to begin until she took it back to her room. Would she wear it as per his request, would she struggle over the gift and what it entailed, would it occur to her to 'lose' the rocks and hide the truth by claiming that the party was too casual an event for something so expensive? There were a thousand and one micro reactions he had expected to spend the rest of the week analyzing, but this was not in any way a part of his plan.

"No." Afterglow faded to a half-forgotten ember, the newly minted treasure hunter yanked the woman forward by the first thing he could reach. "You can't tell me no. You're going to take the necklace."

Thumb and index tight on her jaw, he shoved her all the way back against the bland leather on the opposite side of the product he was testing. Exposed throat just begging for it, murdering the woman and leaving her corpse for the authorities would have been no skin off his back, but at present this coke was truly one-of-a-kind. The unforgettable kind of eyes that could haunt a man, her natural sapphires glittered up at him as if she were begging him to do it. He could have done it easily and with no remorse, but he wasn't in the business of rewarding insolence.

Bai wanted to accept the diamonds, she really did, but she didn't trust herself. Words failing her, she had no way to show him how much it meant to her that he had already given her more than she could ever require, that she would have worn the colorless gems with pride every day until she died. Couldn't he see that her control was slipping - after what she just did for him, for the blow, it was obvious that it was long gone by this point - that she ran the risk of selling the shirt off her back for another hit? It was only a matter of time before the addiction became too powerful and she became lower than dirt.

Rejection a bitter and unfamiliar taste in his mouth, Rafe interpreted her refusal as loyalty to his father. Maybe he really had misread her this entire time. "I'll give you time to reconsider." Allowing her up, he motioned for her to spin around so he could have his belt back. "Best remember who you really belong to."

"I know who I belong to." Rubbing her wrists to help the blood flow return to normal faster, she grabbed the velvet box before leaving, "Now it's only a question of why."

Week passing in a chaotic blur that left the woman very little time to herself, when Bai wasn't staring down the velvet box as if it killed her mother she was working on her resignation. The same morning that Rafe had given her the necklace, she had gone straight to speak to his father about quitting her current post, but he refused her request on the grounds that even if the house wasn't so preoccupied with setting up the celebration, she was too good at her job. In no uncertain terms, he told her that she would have to royally screw up to get that transfer. Contemplating whether or not she should tell him about what had happened with his son, she only wanted to be moved away from the situation, not dead. Although it was all a moot point when Rafe would hunt her down if his father didn't just have her executed on the spot.

"Now it's only a question of why."

Hounded by her own words, she sat alone on her bed the night of Rafe's party and fiddled with the sheer stockings she was going to wear. As the head of security, it was expected of her to poke her head in to be sure that everything was copacetic; she couldn't hide in her room forever. It was awfully tempting though.

Everything was already laid out for her to put on, and the necklace was still resting in the box on her nightstand where she left it. It felt like the jewelery was always mocking her with its very presence, yet at the same time she liked to keep it close by. Strictly speaking there was no set dress code for the event, so odds were that she was going to be overdressed either way. Rafe preferred a more classic look she knew, but he would have been content enough with anything so long as she wore the diamonds.

Swinging the nude-tone nylon through the air as she lounged on the bed in her most sultry lingerie, Bai really wasn't in a rush to face the man. Groaning to herself when the thigh-high hose flew out of her hand and landed someplace on the eggshell carpet, the more she thought about her prediciment, the more she came to realize the why, although she was not going to admit it to him. He had enough power over her as it was, he hardly needed more.

Time ticking by as she procrastinated, the responsible part of he brain knew that she really should have started to get dressed, however that would require her to get up off the bed. Coke already screwing with her mind more than she could bear, though she had always been attracted to Rafe, after their previous encounter she knew that she didn't have the strength to hold back. But did she really have to? For better or worse things were changing for them, and that scared her more than anything else.

Eyes once more going to the velvet box at her side, the woman rolled over (careful of the hair naturally) and picked it up. It felt heavier in her hands each time she held it, just like her heart when she thought of the way she had declined the present. Already it was the best thing she would ever receive, and she meant that from the bottom of her heart.

Admiring the diamonds as each one caught the light and reflected it back, she moved to the vanity to put the necklace on. By all rights she should have slipped into her dress first, but being a strapless number she didn't foresee too much of a problem. Stones cold to the touch and equally breathtaking to behold, as they pressed against her bare skin she wondered if he had only given her the jewelery to wear so she could look beautiful when he killed her. He had been so close that night, it made sense that he had only held off for a better moment. Honestly he was hard to read at times, but if that was what he wanted...

"I don't think I can just give him my life like that." Forlorn in her confession, Bai turned around from the vanity to peer at the blonde. Normally she had the trash sent to her special place on the docks, but this bitch had struck a nerve and that wasn't something that the bespectacled security head couldn't let slide. Crouching down at the space behind the bed, she ran her ring finger over the rope binding the blonde, her pinky tracing along the edge between braided cord and dimpled chin. "I would live my life for him without hesitation, but I'm not yet at a point where I can die for him without a second thought." Playing with a loose strand of the other woman's hair, she curled it around her fingers all the way up to the tawny root. Leaning in to whisper into the shell of her guest's ear, she flash a sadistic smirk before yanking out a yellow chunk, "I hope he likes his gift."

However the night ended, someone was going to die.

Blowing the distraught and openly sobbing fashionista a kiss before turning to pick up her fallen stocking, Bai tossed the bloodied strands back at the woman. Bending along the satin-skirted mattress with her back to the door, her manicured digits fumbled blindly through the shadows for the hosiery. Hearing the door creak open, she froze. If it was one of her men coming in to disturb her with anything less than an emergency, heads were going to roll. If it was her employer or his spouse... that just would have been strange. But she didn't need to look to know that it was Rafe.

Rising slowly to allow herself a second to gather all of her confidence and don it place of the cover she lacked, the woman turned to face him with her head held high and the jewels on full display. "You did wear it."

Not sounding surprised in the slightest, Rafe nodded at the woman in approval and deftly closed the door at his back so that they were completely alone. Swelling with the sounds of a party that would live in infamy for years to come, the late nineties dance music was blaring through the walls and the pig in the corner was whimpering through the numerous ties, but for all of that they may as well have been the only two in the world.

Meeting each other at the foot of the bed almost by accident, he reached out to touch her. She thought that the young man was only going to grab one of the diamonds to put an emphasis on his point, but he went straight passed them as if they weren't there. His hands were warm on her bare shoulders, but his touch sent a shiver down her spine that resonated with the fluttering in her gut. "Something told me you would."

"...I had to. Because you told me to." It was so much deeper than that, than a bond between a thug and the ringleader, than an addict and a dealer, than an itch that was tough to scratch. As she'd confided to her captive in the corner throughout the week, she would live the rest of her life for that man, on his terms. It wasn't just lust, just the way he spoke, it was everything - the way he could outmaneuver just about anyone else in the room, the way he observed his surroundings to his own benefit, the way he dirtied his hands.

Mistrustful of her motivations on the surface only at this point, he tilted his head at her, "Is that the only reason?"

Of course it wasn't! Peeking through her lashes at the circles his thumbs were rubbing into her shoulders, Bai made up her mind and just went for it, leaving no space whatsoever between their bodies when she lunged. Naked calves brushing against the material of his pants as his knee came between her legs, they felt twined at the hips and torso. Heat spiraling through the air and washing over their lungs as their mouths battled for dominance, the wires in her Victoria's Secret cut deep as he tried to pull her into himself. Wen Bai was no longer her own, not now that they were negotiating this new contract.

Pout vanishing the instant she aggressively met his lips, she whispered the words into the kiss in the hopes that he wouldn't hear. You know why too.

Stained bronze from the lipstick she had been wearing, he pushed her away, but not because he was rejecting her. Rafe had heard everything she said and did in her room, every gentle murmur in the mirror and every squelching crunch as she cut into the middleman stuffed behind the bed. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt from the first time she opened the box to try the necklace on, although hearing the words spoken out loud he figured that he had always known. The icy eyed multi-billionaire wanted her to say them to his face.