Page 30 of Mr. Blackwood

I was enjoying how relaxed Camilla was becoming in my presence. She seemed to let her guard down the more we spent time together, and I was considering sharing more of me with her.

“Do you have any more famous people working for you? This,” she stated, pointing her fork at the snowflake-like marbling of the Wagyu beef, forgetting the topic momentarily.

“Glad you’re enjoying it. As for famous people working for me—not to my knowledge. You shouldn’t be surprised, though. Don’t you run in those circles? I would have thought you’ve interviewed plenty of celebrities.”

She shook her head as she chewed her Japanese beef and moaned at the rich, buttery flavoring. “Not so much. My focus is businessmen and women like yourself. I don’t get too caught up in that world. Besides, the people I interview are famous locally and regionally only.”

“Famous is famous.”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

“Maybe you could shift your focus and interview celebrities, if that’s what you want. You could always expand your magazine. Maybe open a separate publication.”

She stopped chewing and stared at me.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she replied.

“No. Tell me.”

She shrugged. “I want to expand. I’m looking for opportunities to do that.”

“Good. Let me know how I can help. I believe in supporting dreams,” I explained.

She held an intense look in her eyes before she lowered her gaze to her meal and resumed eating. Eventually Camilla changed the topic.

13 – CAMILLA

ONE WEEK LATER

I pushed out from under the covers, grabbed Jabari’s dress shirt off the armchair on his side of the bed, and threw it on. I finally went in search of him after waiting for him to return to bed. He had gotten up about a half hour before and rolled me out of his arms and woke me up. I had tossed and turned waiting for him to return.

He had sent a car for me the evening before and brought me to his house for dinner. Awe ran through me as he gave me a tour of his five-bedroom, five-bathroom home. There were four half baths in addition to the five full ones. Meticulously cleaned marble floors ran throughout the house and gleamed under teardrop chandeliers crafted only of Swarovski crystals.

The same degree of finish that was used in the opulent art that hung in his office was also displayed in the paintings at his house, but these were erotic. He had a theater room down the hall from his two-story office. The mansion also had a gym, library, two commercial-style kitchens, an indoor basketball court, a ballroom, a formal living room, a conservatory, a chef’s kitchen, a formal dining room, a butler’s pantry, and a game and billiards room.

I’d had to ask him what the hell a staging kitchen was, and I was in awe of his wine cellar. I hadn’t wanted to leave, and he promised to let me sample whatever I wanted and make love to me later, and he had. Jabari had poured various wines on my body and licked them off. I’d poured some on his erection and sucked him off, and when he nutted in my mouth, he had sucked that out and swallowed it.

He was definitely a freak, but I liked it. We passed by the utility and laundry rooms that were the size of the bedrooms in my home. He even had an outdoor kitchen and an outdoor pool.

Jabari had taken time out to show me the six vehicles that filled up his six-car garage: a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the Bentley, the Range Rover, a Mercedes Benz S-Class, a Cadillac Escalade, and the Subaru BRZ that he raced.

I had spent the previous night having deep conversations with him about my life, but I felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere with him. Sometimes, I suspected that Jabari used his wealth to keep certain barriers up between us, like creating exclusive opportunities and luxurious dates to impress me.

I found him in his office just ending a call. I walked in, and he rolled his chair back so that I could sit on his lap.

“Good morning, gorgeous,” he greeted.

“Good morning.”

“You look so damned good wearing my shirt.” He kissed my jaw and my neck while he unbuttoned the shirt, and I couldn’t help it, but I felt myself tense.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Yes, there is. Please don’t shut yourself away from me.”