Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER FOUR: SIZZLING CHEMISTRY

Nothing was coming out of the investigations, nothing. So far, Alaya had interrogated five of the Fortune members, and she was already tired of their unique personalities. Like she’d envisaged, it was not easy tackling the extreme rich, they had their own superiority complexes to deal with.

The worst of the lot was Athena Fortune Gallagher who seemed to think that the world resolved around her. Alaya was clearly not impressed with her arrogance and superlative attitude. But being a police officer, it required extreme talent and aptitude to manage any type of person.

What bothered her though was the fact that everybody she’d interviewed so far gave the same exact version. Extracting information from them was equivalent to squeezing blood from a stone. Every of her questions were answered with a very brief and blunt retort.

Who was present at the dinner table? All the Fortune members and two close family friends the Benedicts and Williams.

What was the occasion? Adonis Fortune’s ascension to the throne.

How did everyone take the news? Very well. It was expected. The dinner was only a formal announcement.

Was there any tension between the family members? No.

So far, nothing consequential from them. Alaya was starting to get pissed off grasping at straws. No matter how hard she pressed, none of the senior Fortunes gave her an inch. Sighing heavily, she flung the useless papers on Jimmy’s desk.

“Nothing! We have nothing so far. Those elderly Fortunes are tough nuts to crack. I got the same boring stories from Athena, Maddox, Artemis, Nora, and Helen. Elijah Fortune is not responding to my calls. I think I’m going to hunt the second generation.”

“Op, op, op!” Jimmy stopped her by holding her elbow. “Not so fast Sherlock. The Fortunes have categorically refused the summon of their children to the precinct. Only the first-generation siblings have accepted to give their statements.”

“But they’re lying! They’re obviously hiding something! Their versions are so well-versed that I am sure there’s something fishy. It’s obvious that they have talked about it and have everything prepared before the summon!”

Jimmy sneered. “That’s the way things are Pet. If you cannot find a loophole in their statements, then there’s nothing you can do. I would advise you to call Elijah Fortune or Victor Alexander to the post. If you’re lucky, you might get those two to talk.”

Alaya sighed heavily. “Damn! Damn!” she cried in outrage, picking up her coat and left the premises in a rush of frustration and anger. It was over two weeks and she was nowhere near a single lead yet.

Peeved with herself for not being able to crack the Fortunes, she drove around in her SUV and found herself at the creepy lakefront Xanadu estate once again.

She didn’t know what she was doing driving over here without permission, but the guards allowed her past, and she reckoned that Adonis was at home. There was no way she would have surpassed the security without his go-ahead.

Without thinking, she asked the butler that she wanted to see Mr. Adonis and was led to the study with the servant announcing that the master was waiting for her inside. Still fuming with failure, she knocked tentatively on the door, and every hair on her body raised in alarm at the grave voice behind the door.

“Detective,” he drawled silkily without even bothering to look up from his laptop. “I must say that you are lucky to catch me home today. Do you make it a habit of going unannounced to other people’s house?”

Alaya felt his sexy voice vibrate through her like a rumble of thunder, one which was followed by a lighting that electrocuted her insides. “What is going on?” she attacked unfettered, uncaring that she was speaking to one of the richest men in Seattle.

“What…is…going…on?” he repeated slowly, his fingers flowing over his keyboard like he was unconcerned, his attention focused on his work. The long sleeves were rolled up his arms, showing bulging toned biceps. The top two buttons of his shirt was left open, revealing a shaved naked torso which made her fingers itch.

Alaya gulped as she took in the details, her body reacting to the masculine epitome of perfection sitting right in front of her. There was nothing wrong with her – Adonis Fortune was so gorgeous that any woman would droll over his excellency. But she was disappointed in herself, - she’d thought herself immune to ruggedly handsome charms.

Her fingers itched to travel over the tantalizing view of naked olive skin peeping from the opening of his shirt. Would his skin feel as sculpted as it looked? That hard planes of perfection seemed to beckon to her, arousing her to a point where she was losing her sanity.

She sighed. The case! “I got nothing from your family. They are refusing to corporate! I thought you said you would help me on the case. Is this how you’re helping me?” she cried out in frustration.

“What is going on?” he parroted deliberately taunting her, and enraged, she flipped the cover of his laptop down. His olive-green eyes flew to hers immediately, the dark color containing a mixture of anger and desire. She froze in place.

Either she was completely blind or totally demented but she could not misinterpret the candid desire his eyes was reflecting right now. A dangerous reaction started, rackling through her body with a sizzling heat.

Straightening from her attacking position like she’d been slapped, Alaya took a moment to process the information. A lodge formed at the base of her throat, and she swallowed past the lump of emotion.

“Did you synchronize your version before coming to the precinct?” she asked, trying hard to remember why she was at the mansion in the first place. She was here to investigate the murder of Mason Fortune, nothing else.

Adonis emerged from behind his desk like a Greek legend, the perfection of his body magnified with the Armani suit he was wearing. As he straightened, the action displayed every tight plane of his body in a sharp, sleek elegance which made Alaya groan deep inside.

Gulping at the sheer beauty which Adonis projected, she clutched her fists in tight ball to refrain herself from reaching out to him. The image made her sigh in pure unadulterated pleasure. It was highly unhealthy to harbor such sinful thoughts about the man, especially since she was not supposed to get involved with him.

He was a suspect for Christ’s sake! Was she completely demented to lust after the main suspect in a murder?

Everything about him screamed an animalistic magnetism, his biceps bulging through the suit as he leaned forward towards her, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits as he stared at her in open challenge.

He was the finest champagne that she wanted to taste at all cost. “What if we did? You’re looking into my family when I specifically asked you not to. Do you really think that I will allow you to slander my family’s reputation for the sake of making sensational news about the intrepid Detective Petrov?”

His action was nothing provocative, it was in fact a mundane action except everything on him looked so sexy that she felt her mouth drenched with saliva.

“I have no choice!” she retorted frantically, pushing a trembling hand through the untidy mess of brown nest which settled on top of his head. Her hair was a mess, now she wished she had taken the chance to fix herself up before meeting him. How vain was that?

His eyes flowed her movement, his gaze lingering in the brown mess, and she cringed in embarrassment. What was he thinking? That she was an untidy mess, a woman who knew nothing about satirical appearance in contrast to himself.

She was stunned when his hand lifted high on top of her head, and he reached out to untie the clip which held the massive clutter together.

The curtain of hair unraveled to tumble in mesmerizing cascades over her shoulders, falling down her back to reach right above her round derrière. Long hair was not practical in her profession, the reason why she clipped it high in a bun. But she’d lived all her childhood having short spiky hair, courtesy of having no mother.

As soon as she’d reached twenty, she’d nurtured her hair with great love, enjoying the silky nature of the gorgeous mane. It had been a personal choice, she rarely let it open at work or even when she was out.

However, as Adonis sighed with admiration, she reckoned she might have underplayed her assets deliberately. The way his fingers sifted through the silky strands, with an almost reverent adoration made her toes curl inside her shoes. Nobody had ever looked at her in such a besotted way – like she was someone very special to be cherished.

After several minutes, he seemed satisfied with the result, her hair was sorted in an orderly mane down to her butt. He seemed closer somehow, and she gulped down her nervousness at his proximity.

“What are you doing?” she croaked, and was discomfited to find her voice breaking, and his fingers intertwining in her hair to bring her head nearer. She could no longer breath, and her insides froze when she realized his intention.

He was about to kiss her. And more surprising was that she was waiting for it more than her next breath!

Hesitating to gauge her willingness, he brushed his lips over hers when she didn’t move, and she moaned plaintively like a wounded animal. Her mouth opened against his automatically, and she was so lost in the fog of desire that she didn’t even register when his other hand grabbed her waist to bring her closer.

At the same time, his lips invaded her mouth masterfully, arousing her to a point where she couldn’t even stand. Her hands traveled on their own to clutch the lapel of his shirt more because she needed an anchor to keep herself upright.

Like a greedy leech, she suckled on his lips with relish, enjoying the unfamiliar taste of his which merged with hers to become tangled. Then, similar to a cat who got the cream, she licked his mouth with equal fervor than he was giving, and her core pooled with liquid.

The moistness was so bountiful that her clit was very sensitive as it rubbed against the cloth of her panties. She gasped with pleasure, feeling naughty and wanton. If a kiss could render her to the point of no control, she wondered how it was possible for her to move to higher levels.

All she wanted to do was find a solid support and rub against it until she collapsed with exhaustion. A different kind of hunger gnawed inside her, something she’d never experienced before, and which could only be satiated by him.

“What do you want, Detective?” he asked in a rough voice, which offered some kind of gratification that he felt that insane raw chemistry between them. She was not the only one affected by that whirlpool of desire which had suddenly caught up with her.

She made a mewing sound which was so unlike her that she cringed in despair, but even that wasn’t enough for her to break the kiss. She couldn’t get enough. As he devoured her mouth, one hand traveled down, and she whimpered in relief.

It was as if he could read her mind. His hand covered the small triangle over her jeans, and she nearly buckled under the fiery force of desire which hit her. She pressed harder against his touch, her head bent backwards in its full glory, and shut her eyes against the onslaught of emotions overpowering her.

It was too much. He was too much.