by Lexi Hart
I flinch at his choice of words.
Damage.
If this gets leaked, that’s exactly what this will do to me.
Chapter 6.
LUTHER
My irritation and unease only grow as I open the office door and step inside.
Something is going on. Something I’m beginning to suspect is going to land right back in my lap if I’m not careful.
I can forgive the slip up with the code on the new alarm system; I could forgive a lot of things. This place has become an oasis in a desert of noise.
But the camera installation sparks of paranoia. Either he doesn’t trust me, or he thinks there’s a reason not to.
Blaire might be right. He could just be worried about possible trespassers. But access is only by boat. The castle is lit up at night, and with the alarm and someone always here, it seems a little like overkill to install cameras also.
My gut is telling me Jake is into something he shouldn’t be. Which in turn means I’m into something by association.
With Blaire on my heels, I take a seat at the console Jake set up and bring up the feed for the camera.
It takes a few minutes of mucking around but I find the camera feed, and again find myself wondering at the odd placement.
Right above the front door, but not aimed at the walkway to it, but slightly off to the left, so the door to the boathouse is dead center.
Blaire takes a seat beside me, her face twisted into a frown as she looks at the screen.
I find the file with the footage and scroll through until I can view the tape. Blaire leans closer as I scroll through the dates until I find Saturday night.
I fast forward, watching the sun dip, and the trees sway in an otherwise unmoving picture.
I keep speeding through until I see myself walking towards the boathouse. I keep my finger on the fast forward button until the time changes and the camera switches to night mode.
Blaire groans as she appears right on time, running through the rain, right to the boathouse door.
I switch it to play mode and watch as I appear in the doorway. I’ve seen enough, so I fast forward a few hours, flinching as I see Blaire run, obviously distressed from the boathouse.
This looks worse than I could have imagined. From the way I grabbed her and pulled her inside the boathouse, and the way she ran out a few hours later, it could be misinterpreted.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
Blaire’s voice comes out a breathy plea. “There must be a way to get rid of this without him seeing?”
I angle my head to look at her. “Maybe there is. But it would take time to figure it out.”
I hit fast forward and watch the events unfold as Blaire returns a few minutes later, then closes the door.
Everything past that point paints a picture of a night spent together, but the moments caught on camera look decidedly bad.
Without context this is exactly the scenario that winds up in a courtroom. I turn to Blaire and find her wincing as she watches her image on the screen. “I can delete the footage, maybe say something went wrong with the power supply.”
Her eyes still on the screen as the camera catches me carrying her back to the boathouse in my arms after our swim. “Is that something that could happen?”
I shrug. “It’s not my area of expertise. We’d run the risk of drawing even more attention to ourselves.”
She nods slowly, chewing her lip. “Will he watch this? I mean, is there a chance he won’t bother because nothing happened?”
I look at the screen and see us as we reach the front door. “I don’t know. He might scroll through it. But I have no idea when he’d do that if he was going to. It seems like a waste of time unless the alarm was tripped and he wanted to see what set it off.”
I push away from the desk and fold my arms across my chest. She looks so worried; I rush to reassure her when I can’t really. “I can’t see him sitting here watching 72 hours of footage unless he had reason to.”
She runs a hand through her hair, a pensive expression on her face. “Do you think we should just, you know tell them?”
My eyebrows rise. Telling Jake I had sex on his boat and disregarded his instructions isn’t going to gain me anything but grief.
That’s if he doesn’t just tell me our deal is off. “If we tell them, Jake will look at the footage. He’ll know I ignored him, he and Mary will know you locked yourself out and came to me. The question isn’t whether we tell them the truth, the question is what will happen if we do.”
She blinks rapidly, her face falling as her eyes find mine. “Would you get in trouble?”
I shrug. “I’m pretty sure he’ll be pissed enough to find someone else to look after the place.”
Her gaze drops. “I see.”
I roll my chair closer and slide a hand to her knee. “Like I said. It’s doubtful he’ll watch unless he’s actively checking for something. Unless he has more cameras he hasn’t told me about, no one needs to know.”
Emotion flickers across her face. “Is that what you want? No one to know? To keep this secret?”
There’s something in her voice, a warning that makes me choose my words carefully. “What I want is irrelevant. It’s about the possibility of this going further than the island. I don’t know if you want that happening.”
Her lips press together and she shifts in her chair and can’t meet my gaze. “I’m going through a divorce. My husband cheated on me. Right now, that’s the only thing I have stopping me from losing my house.”
My chest tightens and I nod slowly. “Then we don’t mention it.”
She exhales slowly, the tiniest amount of regret in her voice as she smiles sadly. “What do we do now?”
I try for a smile I don’t feel. “Stay away from the camera,” I say.
BLAIRE
Sunday 1.38pm
“What happened with your ex?” he asks.
I’m not sure I feel like sharing but since we’re now possibly in trouble together, I shrug.
“We married too young. I’m not sure if I fell in love with him or his English accent.”
Luther stays silent as we walk back into the kitchen for a late lunch. “He came from a very conservative background. He wanted to have a family. A stay at home wife.”
He sends me a glance as I lean against the counter. “And you didn’t want those things?”
I release a sigh. “For a while I thought I did. Then I started writing again. After a while I realized I could actually make some money from it. He was fine until I started treating it like a business.”
I push off the counter and pull open the refrigerator to see what I can find for lunch.
I settle on sandwiches again, and carry on as Luther finds condiments and grabs some plates.
“He was fine when thought it was a hobby. Then almost overnight he went from being my champion to complaining I wasn’t there for him anymore.”
His eyebrows lift but he stays silent as I spread butter on the bread. “Maybe I wasn’t. But whatever I did to sell books, wasn’t nearly as bad as screwing his old girlfriend in our bed.”
Luther pulls two beers out of the fridge and hands me one. “He sounds like a dick.”
I snort and take a long pull of my drink. “He wasn’t even careful about it. I came home from a conference and my neighbor asked me if he had a sister.”
I shake my head as I lay a slice of turkey on the bread. “I asked her to describe the woman, and she described Kent’s high school girlfriend, right down to the British accent.”
Fresh shame washes over me as I place lettuce and cheese over the top. “The worst thing was that an author who doesn’t like me got wind of our separation. I still don’t know how she did or why she hates me so much. But she told a journalist. It was humiliating. I hadn’t told my brother or my niece. Suddenly I was a joke. The romance writer who couldn’t keep her man satisfied.”
He doesn’t react. “You knew?” I ask.
The slightest
of frowns builds. “A little. I wanted to know more about you.”
He shifts closer. “So, your divorce isn’t final?”
I lay the bread on top and look at him. “Pretty much. I just need to sign the last of the paperwork. He was going to sign his before he left the country. But if he hasn’t and he hears about this, it could end up going back to our lawyers.”
He takes a swig of his beer. “You aren’t still living in the house?”
I shake my head as I put the sandwiches onto plates. “I agreed to a private settlement in exchange for full ownership. Because of his infidelity, he agreed. Until it’s final, I’m living out of a suitcase in a hotel.”
It’s obvious he’s thinking it over as he grabs the plates and heads over to the table. “What does he do for a living?”
I sit down and really wish he’d stop asking questions, so I switch the subject. “He’s an artist. And I’d rather not spend any more time talking about him.”
His eyes narrow. “Did he have citizenship before he married you?”
I nearly choke on my sandwich. “What are you saying? He married me for a green card?”
He shrugs like he didn’t just pull every single one of my doubts right out in the open. “You said he cheated on you with an old British girlfriend? And now he’s going back home? Sounds like he was never really invested in you.”
I’m so gobsmacked; I just gape at him until I’m not sure whether he might be putting to bed one of the deepest seated fears I had about Kent.
It’s astonishing he’s figured it out, based on the limited amount of information I gave him. “Are you always this astute?”
He chuckles and finishes his beer. “I’m going to take a shower. You want to join me?”
All my nerve endings tingle and it takes all my control to turn him down. And if he hadn’t just handed me the answer to a question I’d been asking myself for six months, maybe I would.
But I need to know. “I have something to take care of. I’ll meet you in the billiards room.”
I push back from the table, ready to do something I should have done three and a half years ago when Kent asked me to marry him.
I make my way back into the billiards room. Any worry I had about Mary and her husband knowing about Luther and I is pushed aside as I open my laptop and do a quick search through my emails from a mutual friend of Kent and mine.
I find her reply to a question I asked. I never considered what she was saying. I was too devastated to get confirmation he was cheating and likely had been for a while.
Hey, doll.
I don’t know her well. Just well enough to say hi.
She’s a gallery owner over in London. They were engaged for a while. I’m not sure why they broke up, just that he moved here looking for a fresh start and then he met you.
I really sorry I didn’t think to tell you she was back in New York when we went to the conference.
You aren’t the only one who didn’t see this coming. We all thought it was a genuine love at first sight thing.
You know, how you met, how quick he asked you to marry him.
It was quick. I was too smitten to listen to reason. His visa was expiring. I didn’t want to lose him, so I accepted what I thought was an incredibly romantic proposal.
But he didn’t want me. Not really. He probably wanted citizenship so he could start a business.
And I, like the fool I was, gave him exactly what he wanted.
I close my laptop with a snap before I send either him or my lawyer an email; I end up regretting.
With a glance at the fire that is burning out, I peel myself off the sofa, load more wood and stand restlessly by the fire, tapping my foot as I wait for Luther to reappear.
The second he strides through the door, hair wet, and looking like a man on a mission, all the things I wanted to tell him vanish.
I launch myself at him, pressing my body against his as I push him against the wall, tugging at his jeans.
He moans as my fingers slide down and I rub his cock as he caresses my tongue with his.
His hands slide to my ass and he lifts me up and spins me so my spine is crushed against the wall.
My hands are in his hair, running over his body, lifting his shirt up so I can feel the contours of his muscles.
I tear at his clothes, desperation clawing at me as he walks me across to the pool table.
I shift my weight so I’m sitting on the felt, wrapping my legs around him as he pushes up my dress.
He kisses my neck, sending shivers down my body as he whispers in my ear. “Much as I’d like to bend you over the pool table, I want you in bed. Naked.”
I have no time to formulate an answer when he grabs me by the waist and throws me over his shoulder.
I don’t know whether to scream, or protest, or give in to how insanely erotic this is, but when he stalks out of the billiards room, and kicks open the closest door, and kisses me like I belong to him, I’m too turned on to do anything but let him.
He rips off his clothes until he’s buck naked. The mood he’s in, I half expect him to just take me, but when I’m lying panting on the bed, he pushes my dress up and starts kissing my skin, taking his time, kissing and licking every part of my lower body until he reaches my bush.
“Take off your dress,” he growls.
With a whimpered agreement, and my legs shaky with desire, I wriggle out of my dress and my underwear.
His eyes roam over my body, and another rumble escapes his throat. His intensity is almost frightening. He’s looking at me like a hungry man looks at a meal.
He spreads my legs and pushes his tongue between them, his tongue as wet and warm as I am. I’m gasping in seconds, exploding in his mouth, pleasure so exquisite I feel like I’m floating above myself.
I think he’s going to keep pleasuring me, but he just flips me over and pushes me up on all fours starts to caress my ass.
When I’m moaning low and trembling from anticipation, his fingers expertly manipulate me until I’m making primal animal noises and I’m quivering, begging him to get inside me.
But he disregards my need and keeps using his fingers until I’m close to coming.
He seems to recognize I’m about to climax, and he spreads my legs wider and starts using his tongue to lick all of me, along with a finger that he inserts into my wetness.
With his fingers and tongue making pleasure tear around my body, I’m screaming his name in seconds and desperate to return the favor.
I twist around and push him away so I can catch my breath. He looks wild until I drop to my knees and take him in my mouth.
His fingers twist in my hair as he guides me, moaning as I slide his hard cock in and out of my mouth until he’s starting to gasp.
I lick his tip, sliding my tongue around, tasting his juice, sucking it down like it’s nourishment, and only stopping to lick and suck his ball sack.
He slides back and grabs me, kissing me furiously as his fingers run over my breasts and down my stomach. Luther shoves me back onto the bed and pulls me on top of him.
He leans up to kiss me before I slide over his cock. He grabs me around the waist as I ride him slowly.
I’m writhing in pleasure as I find my rhythm until I’m coming and near screaming his name. “Oh shit, oh shit. I’m coming, oh fuck, I’m coming,” I scream.
Luther gives me no time to recover, just flips me over so I’m on all fours again.
With a groan at how wet I am, he pushes inside me, pounding me harder, grabbing my hair, making my nipples harden with our animalistic rutting.
He pumps harder and harder, faster and faster until I’m sure I’ll never experience anything close to the pleasure that’s exploding through me.
I issue a guttural scream and he joins me, his voice caught between a roar and an expletive.
I’m so exhilarated, still so turned on when he lies beside me on the bed, I flip on my side and press my mouth to his.
Whatever else happens betwe
en us, I aim to make the most of the incredible connection we have.
LUTHER
I kiss her so hard and for so long, I’m starting to see stars. But I can’t stop. She’s intoxicating. Like a drug I’m starting to crave. Five minutes away from her and I’m a wreck.
To hell with the fallout, I want her. And I’m going to have her for as long as I can hold on to her.
She’s still breathing hard, and her nipples are still hard, cheeks flushed, giving me a reason to see if she’ll respond to my touch.
I pull her close and wrap my arm around her, one hand rubbing her nipple, the other sliding down her stomach until my hand is spreading her legs and I’m feeling her wetness.
I rub her, relishing the way she’s moaning and feeling myself getting hard with the increase in her breathing and the added moisture on my fingers.
I feel like a horny teenager again. She’s like Viagra, all I want to do is fuck her, make her come and lick as much of her as I can.
She turns to face me, breathing rapidly as she kisses me, rolling her tongue with mine making me think of how much she liked sucking my cock.
Her body stiffens and she explodes, her tongue still in my mouth as I feel every part of her tremble with the orgasm I’m giving her.
When she’s still, she rolls on her side and I draw her closer to me as she smiles. “I don’t think I’ve had this many orgasms in a month let alone two days.”
My lip curls. “That’s a crime.”
She laughs and runs her finger down my chest. “Well, I never met a man who wanted to make me come as much as you do.”
A smug smile builds. “Your ex wasn’t into that?”
She screws up her face. “I don’t think he was into me.”
I run my hand over her hip as Blaire blows out a breath. “I don’t think he ever loved me. I think he was still in love with his ex.”
Something snaps painfully in my chest. Something that has no business being there. Something deeply reminiscent of hope.
Her lip catches her teeth, and she looks away. “That’s why it’s so utterly pathetic. I think I was so caught up in the romance of it; I failed to see what his real motives were.”