by Emma Roberts
Taking me in her warm mouth again, she slid her lips all the way to my base, then sucked as she retreated. It was hell not to move my hips, not to take her mouth when she engulfed me again, this time licking her way up my underside. Letting me pop out of her mouth, her tongue swirled over the ridge of my mushroom head as I did my best to not move as she’d directed. My balls tightened in anticipation of release.
“Mina, stop,” I panted.
She drew away, lips glossy and eyes glazed with pleasure. She let out a soft squeal when I slid two hands beneath her ass and hoisted her gently onto the bed on her back. I guided the head of my cock to her glistening entrance and pushed inside, locking us together in the most intimate embrace possible. She cried out in surprise as I pushed myself into her, inch by inch. I tried to go slow. Wanting to savor every instant I still had left with her. Her hips moved in eager little rolls as she met me slow thrust for slow thrust.
Her legs wrapped around my waist, holding me in place. I buried my face in the feather-soft fall of her hair, breathing her in. The distinctive sweet scent that was all Mina pervaded my thoughts, made me still harder inside of her, even as I thrust shallowly into her warm, tight heat.
I traced the lines of her slim shoulders, the taut strength in her arms, the slenderness of her fingers. I tasted the freckles that dotted her skin like the palest of cinnamon, memorizing the feel of her on my tongue. Her taut stomach felt like heaven beneath my hands, and the velvet softness of her legs as her pussy enveloped me.
I wanted to brand the feel, the taste, the smell of her into my mind until it became indelible, part of my being. I never wanted to lose the memory of this perfection.
Mina traced the contours of my back, arching into every thrust with a soft mewling sound. Her lips parted into a lush “o” of pleasure as I filled her, stroking across that spot inside of her that made her back arch and her toes curl. My hand sought that bud between her legs, stroking her until her walls fluttered around me, signaling her impending orgasm.
“Come for me, baby,” I commanded.
Mina’s back came clean off the bed and she anchored herself against me, fingernails digging into my shoulders as she rode out the release. I followed her seconds later, testing my teeth against her throat as we finished in one perfect moment of bliss.
When we were through, she sagged boneless onto the bed. Her eyes were half-lidded as she reached for me. “That was amazing,” she purred, curling herself close to me. “Just think. We have the rest of our lives to do this.”
Guilt rammed into me like a freight train, crushing me beneath the weight of what I’d just done. It wouldn’t be viewed as a farewell, or giving her the last thing she’d asked for. She would believe I’d used her. And, in a way, she’d be right.
“It has to be the last time, Mina,” I choked out.
Mina propped herself up on one elbow, bosom heaving. That was distracting, to say the least. The taut pink buds were flushed and rosy from her arousal. I itched to taste them, even as she stared me down.
“What do you mean? Once we’ve figured out what Owen has on your father, you’re free.”
“I figured it out a few days ago,” I confessed. “And it isn’t something I can get out of. My father was a bigamist, Mina. He had thirteen wives. And if it gets out, Farraday Industries is finished. I have to do what he asked. I have to marry Phoebe.”
The sleepy expression vanished from her face, and she sat upright, hands balling into fists at her sides. Even completely nude and mussed from a good fuck, the anger that radiated off her was almost intimidating. “You don’t have to do anything.”
“You don’t understand. I probably killed him, Mina, bursting in and going off like I did.” I slid off the bed and found my pants. “I have to preserve his legacy. It’s the only honorable thing to do.”
Angry tears glittered in her eyes. I ached to wipe them away. She’d have slapped me if I tried. “None of that matters. You haven’t done anything wrong. You don’t have anything to apologize for. I know you, Logan Farraday. You can do anything you set your mind to! Don’t you want to be happy? Don’t you want me to be happy? What happened to loving me, no matter what happens?”
“I love you,” I said quietly. “I will always love you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Sometimes duty is what matters, Mina. Not happiness. Sometimes other people force us to make choices we don’t like. Sometimes we just have to abide by those choices.”
She flew to her feet, gloriously nude, drawn up to her full height. But she quivered, lips white with rage, her hazel eyes flashing like some sort of vengeful goddess. For a moment, I was sure she’d slap the shit out of me. Wished she would.
Instead, she marched to her dresser, threw on a shirt and wriggled into a pair of pants. She snatched up a pair of keys from the end table.
“Fuck your duty. And fuck you,” she snarled.
She stalked into the hall, slamming the door behind her. The sound echoed—the death knell of my happiness.
I sank onto the bed where we’d been in bliss just moments ago, head in my hands, heart sinking to my toes.
Now what the hell was I supposed to do?
Chapter Twenty-One
Mina
I had to look in Hustler records to find Gideon Harvey’s address. Though we’d been posing as a couple for over a week now, I still didn’t know his address. It seemed like a massive oversight on my part.
He lived in a two-story home in Rowland Heights. The beige siding and slate roof made it rather unremarkable, and I drove past it twice before realizing I was at the right address. I frowned as I parked my rental next to a black Jaguar XJ in the drive. Gideon had been driving me in a Volvo. I didn’t imagine that the muscle car was his speed. Perhaps he had a friend over?
I decided it didn’t matter. My chest ached, and my stomach was a solid block of ice. It was probably a scummy thing for me to do, crawling to a client I had no intention of dating, but I wanted to feel safe and above that, desired, after the kick in the gut I’d just received.
Gideon answered the door on the first knock. His eyes went wide as he took in my tousled appearance. I hadn’t even had the forethought to grab a makeup bag, comb, or a wig. I looked like a pile of shit, and he really did deserve better.
“Oh my God, Mina! What happened to your face?”
My face? For a second it didn’t register. Then the subtle throb of my bruises reminded me that I’d been punched fairly recently. They was just another item on the inventory of discomforts competing for my attention. I hadn’t even thought to put on cover-up. I must have looked like I’d been beaten.
Gideon seized my elbow and dragged me inside. The narrow hall was lit by a lamp, and I got a brief flash of photos. His family beamed from the frames on the wall. Guilt choked me. This week should have been about Gideon and his grandmother. Instead, I’d spent it in service to a selfish bastard who prioritized everything but me.
A figure shot to their feet when Gideon dragged me inside. It took me a few seconds to recognize the concerned face of Isadora Anwick peering down at me after I was led to sit on the couch. “Oh my God. Gideon, what’s going on here? What’s happened to Miss Blakely?”
Ah, so she still remembered me. Was that a good thing or a bad thing at this juncture? I wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know. She just turned up like this. Mina? Are you alright? Who did this, Mina? Was it that bastard, Farraday? Did he hurt you?”
I nodded mutely. Yes, Logan had hurt me. He’d hurt me beyond what I’d ever believed possible. Even without the release of the sex tape, he’d managed to fuck me over several times. He’d used me. He’d decided to take everything I had to offer and give me nothing in return.
There must have been a quiet conversation going on while I ruminated over Logan’s betrayal, because the next thing I registered was Isadora’s voice.
“Let me take her home, Gideon,” Isadora coaxed.
“I can take care of her. She should stay
here and call the police. She deserves justice for this.”
“I know that, dear. But don’t you think she’d be more comfortable with a woman? I don’t know if you’re exactly the person she needs to be seeing at the moment. This situation requires a gentle touch. And I think she’d be more comfortable at home.”
Isadora knelt by my side and took my hand gingerly. “Would you like that, dear?”
“Maybe,” I hedged. “But...what are you even doing here, Miss Anwick?”
Isadora exchanged a glance with Gideon, who shook his head minutely. Isadora forced a smile. “It’s a tradition Gideon and I have. I come over every weekend for drinks. You’re lucky you caught us before the schnapps came out.”
She gave me a conspiratorial wink and a smile that was so infectious I couldn’t help but return it.
“Okay,” I said with a soft sigh. “But I’ve already talked to the police once. Logan didn’t do this. He’s…he’s being a bastard, but he didn’t hit me. I think I just want to go home and sleep this off. I’m sorry for coming over here like this. I—” Tears choked me for a second. “I just couldn’t be alone…”
It was best I didn’t stay, now that I thought about it. I’d probably throw myself at Gideon in a vain attempt to prove to myself that Logan meant nothing to me. I’d just make a fool out of myself. Because Logan did mean something, even now. He meant everything. And that was the torment of it all.
I gritted my teeth. This wasn’t over. I wasn’t through fighting for him yet. Somehow, I’d find a way to yank his moralizing head right out of his ass and make him see sense. I needed some time to think and regroup.
Isadora bundled me into the back of her Jaguar, and taking a seat on the passenger side, instructed her driver to head toward the coast.
I frowned. “Miss Anwick, I don’t live by the coast. I’m in the Heights. We need to go the other way.”
Isadora’s smile was wolfish. “Oh, I know, dear. I’ve been keeping tabs on you. It really is a shame Luciana couldn’t do her damn job and get rid of you. It would have been so much simpler to make it look like an accident. You know what they say, though. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I have some friends on the coast, and you’re just their sort of cargo.”
I stared at her in blank shock, mind reeling. She couldn’t be serious.
This had to be a nightmare.
Or a huge, cosmic joke.
Someone was going to leap out and announce I was on candid camera at any second.
I barely knew her. I’d never done anything to her. The only connection I’d ever had to the Anwicks was through Alastair, years ago.
My eyes went wide as the realization struck home. I dove for the door handle. I didn’t care that the vehicle was moving. I had to get out. I had to—
Something jabbed into my back and agony ripped through me. For an endless second, I was seizing, nerves on fire. And then, mercifully, I was yanked down into a black void where the pain ebbed and the world faded away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Logan
After going home and mopping up my face, I’d found the injuries weren’t the worst I’d ever sustained. My lip was split, my nose possibly broken, and bruises were forming all over. But at least I could see out of both eyes.
Phoebe had bought my story of being in a bar fight. She’d fussed over me, and then tried to lure me into her bed, unsuccessfully. I’d slept in my own bed, and that’s how it would stay. She might be able to maneuver me into marriage, but what kind of marriage that was wouldn’t be up to her.
I’d tried to call Mina. I couldn’t let things end the way they had. If she’d see sense, then perhaps we could part on better terms. When I’d gotten her voicemail a half-dozen times, worry crept in.
We’d taken care of Scott and Luciana, but that didn’t mean she was safe. There were still members of Miss Ginger’s escort service at large who might not know the deal was off.
In the morning, a quick call to MacDonald had revealed the tracker in the rental was parked somewhere in Rowland Heights. When I pulled up to an unremarkable two-story house, I was surprised and more than a little pissed to find Gideon Harvey sitting on the front stoop, phone in one hand and a coffee in the other. I threw my Escalade into park and stalked toward him.
If Mina was inside, sprawled across his bed, I was going to throttle him. Justified or not, Harvey was not going to get away with taking advantage while she was upset.
He launched to his feet when he spotted me, his thunderous expression nearly matching my own.
We met halfway up the lawn. Gideon took a swing at me the moment I was in range. I managed to dodge it, barely, and caught the second blow before it could reach my stomach. Big, he might be, but he wasn’t well-trained. He telegraphed his moves so badly, he might as well have announced them out loud. I was betting he’d had maybe one or two karate classes as a kid, and it was all the self-defense he had to fall back on.
“You have some fucking nerve turning up here, Farraday,” Gideon snapped. “I should call the cops. You’re not going to get away with what you did.”
“I just want to know that Mina is safe. Where is she? I need to talk to her.”
“She’s somewhere safe. Isadora probably took her to a women’s shelter. Either way, you’re not getting anywhere near her. Your days of hurting her are over.”
“I didn’t lay a finger on her,” I snapped. “And how do you know she’s safe? Has she called you?”
Doubt flickered across Gideon’s face for the first time since he’d caught sight of me. “No. But she is safe. I’ll show you.”
Gideon dialed a number, hit speakerphone, and waited while I held my breath. The phone rang four times before going to voicemail. Unease prickled at the back of my scalp. Mina wasn’t here, with her rental. And the person she had left with wasn’t picking up.
Gideon dialed again, and this time a dry, professional voice droned, “You’ve reached Isadora Anwick’s office.”
“Penny.” Gideon’s voice was full of relief. “Thank God you picked up. This is Gideon Harvey. Can you patch me through to Isadora? I need to speak to her.”
“No can do, boss,” Penny said with a note of apology in her tone. “Miss Anwick called last night and said she’d be on extended leave.”
“What?” Gideon’s hand clutched the phone. “She didn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry, sir. She said she’ll be gone for an extended trip but didn’t specify to where.”
A look of deep disquiet flashed across Gideon’s face as he hung up and he sat down on the stoop once more. “That can’t be right. She’s never taken a break from the company since taking over for her father. I’d know if she was leaving. She tells me everything.”
“Or maybe not,” I drawled. “Maybe you’re not as important as you believe, Harvey.”
Gideon’s hand balled into a fist at his side as he ground his teeth together. “That’s just it! She does tell me everything, Farraday. She’s been very open and honest with me since I found out.”
“Found out what?”
“That she’s my biological mother. She gave me up for adoption years ago after the bastard who got her pregnant walked out on her. I found out by accident and she hired me into a leadership position in her company so we could get to know each other.”
My brain slowed to a crawl even as ice water sloshed into my veins. I’d glimpsed Gideon from afar during business affairs, and thought he’d looked familiar. So familiar that now that I took a closer look, I could almost be looking in a mirror. My stomach did a flip, and I had a sick feeling I knew who that faithless bastard might have been. And if I was right, things took on a new and horrifying light.
“We need to find your boss, now.”
“Why?”
“Because,” I said grimly, wondering whether Isadora was the main threat or her hand had been forced, “I think Isadora kidnapped Mina. And I’ll need your help to get her back.”
Thank you so mu
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