‘How are you? I mean, after the attack. You seem surprisingly well.’
Tinsley sighed. ‘I’m angry more than anything. Who the fuck could do that? Break into my apartment like that? And my fucking neighbors…’ She gritted her teeth and shook her head and Lila took her hand.
‘Tins, you can stay with us as long as you need.’
Tinsley grinned then. ‘Lila Tierney, if this is more of your plotting to bring all of your friends to Washington…then I’ll admit it’s tempting when it’s as beautiful as this.’
‘All of my friend except one. I just can’t believe that Riley is the suspect. Riley…he looks like a giant teddy-bear; he is a giant teddy-bear. I can’t get my around it but Charlie is convinced.’
Tinsley's smile faded. ‘I know. Part of me wants to scream at Charlie, don’t be so fucking ridiculous! But until we find Riley…’
Lila looked away from her friend and Tinsley could see tears glistening in her eyes. ‘Lila…’
‘In my head,’ Lila interrupted her, ‘we find Riley, he’s a bit banged up but okay and he tells us he found who it was but they tried to silence him. Then he and Charlie go catch the bastard and…’
‘We all live happily ever after. I’m sorry, kiddo, you know better than most. It ain’t gonna happen.’
Later, at home, Lila and Noah were alone. Tinsley and Charlie had gone to collect some takeout from town – were giving the couple some space, Lila knew.
‘How’s my girl?’ Noah brushed his lips against hers. She leaned into his embrace.
‘I wish I could say okay, Noah, but I think it’s a ways off yet.’
‘Yeah.’ His lips on her temple now. God, she wanted him to take her to bed, to forget everything but the doctor had warned them off penetrative sex for a few weeks. She looked into Noah’s eyes and knew he was thinking the same.
‘How about a soak in the tub?’ she murmured against his lips. Noah led her by the hand to the bathroom and they stripped each other slowly as the bathtub filled, kissing every piece of exposed flesh before climbing into the tub. Lila straddled him, coiling her arms around his neck and studying his face as if she’d never seen it before.
‘I love you, Noah Applebaum.’
He smiled, his large hands stroking slowly up her back and around to cup her heavy breasts. He dipped his head to take each of her nipples into his mouth in turn, his tongue flicking around the nub. He slipped his hand gently between her legs. ‘Does it hurt when I do this?’
He stroked her clit gently and she shook her head.
‘No, that feels so good.’ She reached down to stroke his cock, engorged and throbbing as she ran her hands along it, her finger gently teasing the tip, feeling it jerk, hearing Noah’s moan. They kissed slowly, tasting each other, their tongues massaging, their breath mingling.
It was a slow, tender, beautiful release of tension, bringing each other to orgasm, Lila’s back arching, her head dropping back as she came, Noah groaning her name as her hands stroked and caressed until he shot hot, white semen onto her belly.
Afterward, she lay back against his chest, and he splayed his large hands over her stomach, still swollen but noticeably slimmer. Lila sighed.
‘One day, I hope that my belly will be swollen with your babies again. Lots of them. Boys and girls and the boys are as handsome as their daddy, and the girls are all as brilliant as you too.’
Noah kissed her temple. ‘So the boys don’t have to be brilliant?’
‘No, they’re boys; they just have to be pretty.’ They both laughed, glad that they could still be silly together in the face of recent horrors.
‘I meant to tell you,’ Lila said, ‘I got a lovely bouquet from a friend of yours…Joanne is it?’
Noah was surprised. ‘That was nice of her.’
‘I would like to meet her…and speaking of meeting people, I think it’s time I met your parents.’
‘Dad and step-mom, but yes.’
‘Don’t you like Molly?’
‘I adore Molly and I guarantee so will you but she’s always been very careful to say she’s not replacing my mom, even though she loves me like I was her son.’
Lila felt a pang. ‘That’s really sweet. I wish I had known my mom but no, not a thing.’
Noah’s arms tightened around her. ‘Molly will mother you, I promise. And, look, I’ll try and arrange something soon. Should we include Charlie and Tinsley?’
‘It might keep the conversation lighter,’ Lila said, trying to hide a grin.
‘You just want Tinsley there as a shield.’
‘Damn right. You know who I’ve been thinking about? Cora and Delphine.’
Noah sighed. ‘I know. We really do need to go see them, clue them in.’
‘Yes, I think we’ve been lucky none of this has gotten out and I haven’t called to explain. I couldn’t bear that.’
But, of course, it finally did get out – and in the worst way. Lila and Tinsley were shopping at the local farmer’s market when Lila suddenly noticed people stopping to stare at her. She frowned at them but didn’t say anything until they got into her car. She asked Tinsley if she had noticed.
‘Yes, actually, all morning, even when we were having coffee,’ Tinsley admitted. Lila shook her head.
‘I don’t get it – do I have a booger on my face or something?’
Tinsley laughed. ‘Girl, don’t you know me better than that? I would have told you.’
They laughed about that on the drive home but it wasn’t until they were preparing lunch and Lila flicked the TV. on in the kitchen that they discovered the horrible truth.
Lila, her stabbing, Richard Carnegie, his murder and her subsequent pregnancy by her own doctor. All over the news. And the angle? Lila was a gold-digger who drove an ex-lover to stab her just as she was about to ensnare billionaire Carnegie. Her subsequent disappearance and pregnancy by her doctor – another rich man, of course and the loss of that baby – what would Lila do now that her meal ticket was slipping out of her grasp?
Tinsley was enraged – but Lila felt sick. This was everything she hoped would not become public knowledge.
When Noah came home, furious, a couple of hours later, she merely looked at him calmly and said one word.
‘The Carnegies.’
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Delphine looked at her coolly. ‘You look…well.’
Lila knew she didn’t – in fact she looked like crap, flying on the red-eye from Seattle, having begged Delphine to see her. Her hair was a messy bun at the nape of her neck, her clothes hurriedly pulled on sweats.
‘Delphine…I’m so sorry you had to find out like this. I was going to come see you but events over took me.’
‘You had six months.’
Lila winced but nodded. ‘I did. But I was a coward. I didn’t know how to tell the mother of my murdered ex-fiancé that I was already pregnant with another man’s baby. Would you have been able to do that?’
Delphine looked away. Lila took a deep breath in.
‘Delphine…Richard and I…we should never even have been engaged, or even been a couple for a long time before I was attacked. We both knew it. We loved each other but as friends. We just didn’t know how to get off the rollercoaster.’
Delphine studied her. ‘When you went to see him that last time – ‘
‘We broke things off. We parted on good terms, I want you to know that.’
‘Did you sleep with the good doctor before or after that conversation, Lila?’ Delphine’s voice was ice and Lila knew she already knew the answer.
‘Before. And I am sorry; Delphine, but I don’t regret anything. I fell in love with Noah long before I slept with him. He is everything to me and our child, although she didn’t survive, she is still real to me. I still feel like a mother.’
Delphine’s face softened. ‘I’m sorry about the child, Lila, truly. But I thought we were close, that you trusted me enough that you would have known to come to me. When we lost Richard, it wa
s agony but when you left too…a part of me died.’
Her words broke the dam that Lila had been building around her emotions and she gave a sob. ‘I don’t want to do this,’ she said, ‘I don’t want to cry and have you think I’m crying so you’ll be nice to me. What I did…I cannot take back, I don’t want to take it back. But if I could save some of the hurt you felt…I know it’s too late. I love you, Delphine, I loved Richard, I love Cora and Harry and Richard Sr. But I cannot be part of your family anymore.’
Delphine mouth quivered and she quickly covered it with her hand, looking away from Lila, breathing deeply to steady her nerves.
‘Don’t say that,’ she whispered eventually. ‘Please don’t exile us from your life. Not permanently. If you need more time, fine but please, when you’re stronger, come back to us. If not as our daughter, as our friend.’
Lila, trying to contain herself, closed her eyes. Please let me go. But a part of her didn’t want that either. They had been her family. Lila just felt she didn’t deserve to have both the Carnegies and her new life – it was too much.
‘Hello.’ A small voice behind her. Lila turned. Cora, red-haired, thin as a bird, stood behind her. Her eyes were dull, her features pinched but she gazed at Lila not with hatred but with sorrow. Lila could not help but hold out her arms to her and Cora went into them, hugging her tightly.
Delphine watched them for a moment then got up. For a long moment, she placed her hand on Lila’s shoulder, looking down at her, then nodded and left the room.
Manhattan
Noah sat with Charlie in the precinct, watching the rest of the office as they went about their jobs. Charlie was on the phone but he ended the call.
‘Sorry, man, another bad tip. Didn’t think we’d get nothing on Riley, and I mean, nothing.’
‘You talked to that brother you don’t see eye to eye with?’
Charlie rolled his eyes. ‘Multiple times. Look, is Lila freaking out about that news story? Because I guarantee no-one will remember it by next week.’
‘Only that the Carnegies will be hurt but she’s with them now.’
‘Any idea who sold that story?’
Noah gave a humorless snort. ‘Oh yes…Lauren Shannon. She’s still sore at me; I really should have seen it coming.’
‘Well, at least we know something then. I’m getting a little tired of being in the dark about these attacks.’
‘Me too. I feel antsy about being here even, about Lila being in the city. You must feel that way about Tinsley.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Man, the things men do to women.’
‘The things we do.’
Cora finally let Lila go. She sat back and wiped her eyes. ‘Lila, I’m so sorry about everything. When I saw that story, I knew why you had left, and I didn’t blame you. I heard what you said to Mom and you’re right. You and Richard weren’t destined to be happy ever after.’
Lila was a little thrown. ‘Cora…I thought you’d be the angriest of all of them at me. You’d just buried your brother and now you find out, I was already pregnant with another man’s baby at the funeral. I can’t forgive myself for that part, even though I don’t regret being pregnant.’
Cora stared at her with large blue eyes, struggling to find the words then said. ‘We’ve all done bad things, Lila, all of us. I…oh god…’
She crumpled into tears again and Lila, really worried now about the young woman, hugged her tightly.
‘Cora, what is it? What are you trying to tell me?’
Cora, through her tears, said something unintelligible. Lila stroked her hair back from her face. ‘Cora, breathe. That’s it, another one. Now, tell me slowly.’
Cora was trembling violently. ‘It was him, you see. I fell in love with him and I thought….that night…I thought he wanted me but then he took me to her place and then I saw him kiss her.’
Lila shook her head. ‘Cora, you’re not making any sense.’
Cora was shaking her head back and forth. ‘I paid someone. A guy I know, not a good guy. I paid him to scare her off….I paid him to get rid of her but I didn’t know he would actually go through with it…I was so scared…’
Lila’s blood went cold. ‘Cora…are you telling me…’
‘I was the one who sent that man to hurt Tinsley. Oh god, Lila, I was so in love with Charlie and it wasn’t fair and I was crazy jealous and…’
Lila’s head was in her hands, not wanting to hear anymore. ‘No…no…’
‘I sent him to hurt Tinsley, Lila…I tried to kill Tinsley…’
Hold Onto Me Part Four
Manhattan
Noah looked down at Lila, tucked into the crook of his arm as they watched TV. back at their hotel. She had been quiet ever since she’d been at the Carnegie’s – although she said it had gone well – and now Noah was worried. He picked up the remote control and flicked off the TV. Lila barely reacted.
‘Okay,’ he said, ‘there’s something on your mind. Spill it.’
Lila hesitated then sighed. ‘I was thinking of all the ways that love – or at least what we might think is love – is corrupted. Tainted.’
Noah smiled. ‘That’s deep for this late in the evening. What’s really bothering you?’
Lila rubbed her eyes. ‘Just between us?’
‘Of course.’
She gazed at him for a long moment then… ‘Cora hired a guy to kill Tinsley.’
Noah felt the blood drain from his face and he groaned. ‘Oh, fuck.’
‘Yeah.’ Lila wrapped her arm around his waist for comfort. ‘The upside is she’s distraught about it. She’s glad the guy didn’t succeed.’
‘Because of Charlie?’
Lila nodded. ‘See what I mean? People do crazy things for love. Or lust.’ She swallowed hard and looked at him. ‘Noah, I have something I want to tell you and, god, it’s not easy. I have never told anyone this, not even Charlie.’
He frowned. ‘What is it, love?’
‘I slept with Riley. About fifteen months ago. Richard and I were going through a bad patch, he’d been cheating and I had tried to be blind to it but one night, Riley and I were at the bar late, after closing and I’d just had enough. It was only that one time but…’
‘But what?’ Noah kept his voice level. He didn’t judge Lila – or Riley – for what they had done but he was still strangely jealous.
‘He told me that he was in love with me, that if he were someone else, he would beg me not to marry Richard. He wasn’t…I mean to say, he didn’t come across as obsessive just a sad guy with a crush. I ached for him, felt guilty. ‘
Noah tightened his arms around her. ‘We all make mistakes with other people’s hearts, all of us. Doesn’t make us bad people.’
Lila pulled away from him so she could face him. ‘Exactly. Which is why I have a hard time thinking that Riley is behind all of this. It just doesn’t make any sense.’
Noah was quiet for a moment, letting her think. ‘The photos on the wall of his apartment, though.’
‘Someone could have put them there…no, I know, it’s ridiculous. Maybe it was his way of dealing with his crush.’
Noah was skeptical. ‘Sweetheart, if you have a little crush, you maybe have one photo. Not thousands.’
‘Where the hell did he get them from, that’s what I want to know. Actually, scratch that. We weren’t talking about Riley and me; this is about….do I tell Charlie and Tinsley what Cora did?’
Noah let a long breath hiss out from between his teeth. ‘That’s a hard one…’
‘Isn’t it just. What would you do?’
Noah considered. ‘Maybe get Cora to talk to Tinsley in private. Tinsley deserves to know the truth – Charlie…well, that’s up to Tinsley.’
Lila nodded slowly. ‘That’s a good idea, yeah, that is a good idea. I’ll call Cora in the morning.’ Noah saw her shoulders relax and a small smile play around her lips. ‘Thank you, baby, you always know what to do for the best.’
She crawled back into
his arms and pressed her lips against his. ‘Why do I feel, despite everything, that things are going to be okay? I think it’s you, Noah Applebaum. When I’m with you, I feel safe, loved.’
‘You are both those things, Lila Belle.’ He grinned then. ‘I never did ask, is your middle name really Belle?’
Lila chuckled. ‘No, it’s just what Delphine used to call me. Cora is Cora Belle and somehow that translated to me as well. I liked it.’
‘What is your middle name?’
‘I don’t have one. I don’t even know what my real name is, or even if my birth mother gave me a name. Apparently, and I know this is weird, until I was three and put into the children’s home, they called me Lily. It was Charlie who named me Lila, and gave me his mother’s maiden name.’ She smiled now, remembering and Noah stroked her face.
‘Maybe, one day soon, I can give your my name – if you want it,’ he smiled but his eyes were wary. Lila kissed him.
‘Nothing would make me happier.’ She pressed her lips against his neck. Noah buried his face in her hair.
‘Then, when you’re fully healed, we’ll go away together. Somewhere only we know and I’ll ask you properly.’
She looked up at him with shining eyes. ‘I can’t wait, my love. I can’t wait.’
The next morning, Lila drove out to Westchester in the hire car Noah had arranged for her. She had pooh-poohed his suggestion being driven by a bodyguard. ‘Who’s going to get me travelling at speed on the Interstate?’
He had no argument and she kissed him gratefully. ‘I’ll call you when I get there, I promise.’
It was Richard Sr. who greeted her at the door. Never an effusive man, Lila was shocked when he pulled her into a bear-hug. ‘We missed you around here, Lila Belle.’
His warm voice brought tears to her eyes and all she could think of then was how much she’d hurt all of them by disappearing.
Richard told her that Cora was waiting for her in her room and with a smile; he went back to his study.
Cora was sitting on her bed, her big eyes wide with nervousness and Lila couldn’t help but feel for the young woman. Cora was fragile, vulnerable…but, Lila reminded herself sternly, that was no excuse for what Cora had done. And it was hardly a little thing either…
Nightclub Sins: A Billionaire Romance Series Page 113