“Shh, just listen. The kid at the drugstore counter got them out of the drawer for me then Lexi rang them up and bagged them. She didn’t look at the envelope at that point, and neither did I. I didn’t realize it was the wrong pictures until I got home. It was that night we met.”
He trailed a finger along her thigh. “Then I went back to the store and took yours with me, exchanged them. And yes, as I said, I looked at them, but at first I thought they were mine.” He took her face in his hands, keeping her gaze on his, and shook her with a gentle though firm force. “But you were so gorgeous, so kinky and pretty and…I just couldn’t help myself once I got a look at the picture on the top of the stack. I’m sorry, baby. So sorry I breached your privacy, and so sorry I didn’t tell you before now.”
“I…” Britt swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”
Wow. He’d ended up with her pictures after all. But was she just as guilty as he of not being able to resist temptation? That night he’d cuffed her to the chair on his deck, she’d hoped he had gotten a hold of the pictures somehow. She’d gotten off on waiting to see the next pose he’d enact, on the absurdness of it. She’d even been thrilled over the idea that she could seduce him and control him through those racy snapshots. The thought of it as her own secret foreplay had made her wet and horny.
How could she blame him after her own part in it?
“Please, don’t say anything yet. Just let me finish explaining, unloading, getting it all out on the table, okay?”
She nodded.
“Anyway, the store made a stupid, negligent mistake, but for me, I had settled in at home thinking I’d be looking at a pack of pictures, which were technically Carolyn’s. See, she’d asked me to pick them up for her. I suspected they were of Tyler, figured she’d been keeping them from me as usual. Well, they were far from Tyler. They were of you. Then later that evening, you crashed into my life, changing it forever. I didn’t tell you about the store’s mistake or me looking at them because I didn’t want to alarm you or embarrass you. Or make you think I was some creep. Again, you were so hot, so damn irresistible I couldn’t not look at them then I couldn’t not ask you out on a date. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have on either account. But I didn’t make copies, I didn’t show them to anybody and I sure as hell didn’t enter them in a contest for the whole fucking world to see.”
Hope bloomed in her heart. “Really?”
“Really. Britt, I want you all to myself.” He shook her again, held her gaze with his pleading one. “You’ve got to believe me. It makes me so damn crazy to think you’re out there in circulation for more than a million subscribers to drool over.”
It took a long moment for everything to finish sinking in and for her nerves to assimilate to the rational calm he offered her. It all made sense, but it still didn’t explain how the pictures got into the magazine. Was Lexi lying to her? Another possibility she hadn’t considered…maybe Doris had some twisted reason to blow Britt’s career out of the water? She couldn’t fathom why, but now that she thought about it, Doris had it in her to be underhanded and come up with some bizarre scheme to net herself more commission.
Or was it as simple as someone breaking into the store and happening on the pictures, then submitting them to the contest?
It was all so farfetched, and such a convoluted mystery, she didn’t know where to go from here.
“I swear to you, I didn’t do this.” He bent, brushed a feather-soft kiss across her open mouth. “I don’t blame you though, for suspecting me. I’m sorry, I should have told you, but you were so…innocent, I didn’t want to scare you away. So I understand your suspicions.”
Her gaze locked with his, warm and tender even though she’d just accused him of being dishonest in that Lexi-Doris fashion. Calm now with truth seeping into her bones, she knew an absurd urge to tear her stare from his and drink in the sight of the cock peeping from his jeans. “You really saw them right before we ran into each at the drugstore?”
He nodded. “Yes. By accident. And if I could take that night back, I wouldn’t have looked at them at all. I would’ve probably still bumped into you though, and still gotten a date.” He grinned. “But wow. You hooked me from the first shot, and I’d become almost obsessed by the time I got to the last one. So stunning, like a naughty angel or something. You had my heart in chains from the start. You were the one dominating things, not me. But I’m still sorry, baby, sorry for looking at them, for not telling you, for falling in love with you from the moment I pulled that stack out of the envelope.”
“Falling?” She swallowed a tight lump. “Y-you’re falling in love with me?”
He kissed her with tender heat. “You’re damn right. Falling hard and fast. And I swear I’m going to find out who did this thing to you with that contest, to clear myself, sure, but mostly to avenge you and hope your modeling career isn’t damaged for good.”
“Aw, thank you.” She leaned in and sealed her lips to his. “I guess I jumped the gun, didn’t I? I’m…I’m sorry I got so mad at you.”
He drew her into the circle of his arms and held her head against his chest. He rubbed a hand up and down her spine, making her drowsy, relaxed. “No problem, darlin’. I don’t mind being your buffer. I’m sure it was a rotten day learning those pictures were in that magazine.” His hand paused. His pectorals tensed beneath her cheek. “You had no idea about the contest?”
She could have worked her indignant ire back up to a full mad, but his hands were doing such nice things to her, she hated to break the spell. Instead, she inhaled his musky scent, all but melting into him. Every muscle in her body went limp with relaxation.
“No. Well, actually, it was Lexi’s shoot and her idea to enter the contest. I agreed at first but I changed my mind, chickened out, so I took them back from her once they were found. I thought they were safe with me, the last traces burning in my fireplace. I had no idea they’d been published until Doris got wind of it from a rep for a prospective job—a very lucrative one, Victoria’s Secret.” She made a face and snuggled closer. “And now, need I say, Doris is livid that I might have lost the deal for her, and I’m left trying to defend myself so my reputation’s halfway preserved in the business. Who knows if I’ll ever work again, or get that kind of an opportunity?”
“You will.” Such a simple sentence, but Britt heard the conviction in his voice and it warmed her heart. An urge swept her to reassure and explain further to him.
“Diego, I swear after I changed my mind, I didn’t authorize those photos to be put in that magazine. Yes, at the time they were taken, Lexi had worked her magic on me and had me convinced no one would ever know it was me. In her convoluted mind, we’d both walk away with an easy twenty-five grand. She has this way about her…I don’t know, kind of persuasive. I’ve often told her she should be a politician.” She laughed. “Anyway, by the time the pictures were even dry at the lab, I’d gone spineless and put a stop to it. But apparently she didn’t respect my wishes.”
The more he massaged, the more the last traces of tension eased from her body. He relaxed as well, though she wasn’t sure if her reassuring words did it, or the blissful closeness re-forming between them.
“Ah yes, Lexi. She’s a stubborn one, isn’t she?”
“Very.”
He sighed. “What do you say we change the subject? You should get some sleep. Come here.” He drew her with him to the head of the bed, tossed aside the blankets. She settled in with her back to him, curling her weary body spoon-fashion into his. “Here with me in this big four-poster bed of mine. The one you look so delicious tied to.”
The corners of her mouth curved up even as her eyelids drooped. “And it was heaven, so naughty and decadent. But, Diego?” Her muscles let out a sigh of their own when her head sank into a downy pillow. An outdoor-fresh fragrance filled her nostrils. It pleased her how clean and neat he was.
“Yeah? He kissed the back of her head and combed a hand through her hair, making her scalp shimmer with
goose bumps. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“I don’t mind the naughtiness. I love it, in fact. I just don’t want the whole world to see it. I want it to be just between you and me.”
He squeezed her tight, drawing her along the bend of his body. “My sentiments exactly. You’re mine. This is ours. I don’t want to share it with anyone else…except maybe to see you and Michelle together.” He chuckled. “Now just sleep, babe, sleep.”
She needed to hit the bathroom, but exhaustion claimed every muscle, every cell of her tired brain. “Ha-ha, very funny. I’ll think about it, about Michelle. Night,” she whispered.
“Good night, Britt.”
The soothing, raspy tone lulled her further into relaxation. She longed to ask him more about his encounter with Lexi today, but a muzzy fog overtook her as the last thoughts of consciousness passed through her mind.
One of many questions formed on her heavy tongue as she gave in to the clutches of slumber. Lexi’s phone message had been filled with negative comments about Diego. And Britt knew he’d have some very colorful things to say about Lexi as well. But Britt’s inquisitions slipped away, carried into the dreamy bliss of long-awaited sleep.
Chapter Thirteen
“What do you want?” Britt spun from the door, leaving it ajar. She didn’t feel up to dealing with Lexi first thing in the morning. Diego had dropped her off not thirty minutes ago. Even though they’d gotten little sleep, and had made love several times throughout the night, life and energy still sizzled in her system.
Until now.
“We need to talk.” Her eyes were puffy, her face drawn and void of makeup, unusual for the flamboyant Lexi Sorensen. “I haven’t told you everything.”
“Everything? I don’t think there could possibly be more to this whole mess.” Speaking over the breakfast bar, Britt slathered a thin layer of butter on dark toast. Screw that bland diet margarine she’d used in the past. She wanted the real thing now, the sinful things in life.
Britt tried to focus on the perk of the coffeepot and the eye-opening aroma wafting through her apartment. She resented Lexi’s tainting of her mood and the glowing memories of the night before. Still, dread ate away at her gut, though she made a concerted effort to appear unfazed.
Lexi slid onto a barstool, her gaze level as she folded her hands on the countertop. Britt noted the slight trembling. She longed to take Lexi into her arms and comfort her, but the sentiment faded when she reminded herself of Lexi’s betrayal with the photos and the contest.
“He had the pictures that night.”
Britt paused, the knife poised over the warm toast. “He?”
“Yes, he. Diego.”
The palpitation whooshed up into her throat to strangle her. Here we go with the drama. The knife slipped from her hand and clanked against the countertop before tumbling to the floor. “I know. He told me last night.”
“He did? About when the packet went missing and that he ended up with it?”
“Yes. But he didn’t submit them to the magazine, I’m certain of it now.”
Lexi planted her palms on the tiled surface. “Hm. You sure are whipped,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Stop it, Lex. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Well. Someone—and I swear to freaking god it wasn’t me—took that packet from where I left it on the break table, made copies and sent them in to the magazine. Wait a second.” Her eyes widened. “Omigod. Mansini versus Malone, get it?”
Britt bit into her toast, sighing when the sinful butter melted in her mouth. “Yes. I already got that part.”
“Aha. I’ve finally pulled the mystery together. Ding-dong. It just hit me. I bet that someone is my fucking bonehead teenaged assistant, Jaxon. He just came in to work driving a brand-new car. Now where would he get the money for that working as a lowly clerk in the store?”
Britt couldn’t speak. Her voice clogged in her throat and her body shook so hard she couldn’t control it. “You think Jaxon did it?”
“Maybe so. It fits. But I do know I’ll corner that little bastard and find out the truth. And I also know I was not the one who submitted them to the magazine.”
“Okay, okay. I believe you.” She waved a hand and poured them both a cup of black coffee.
Lexi grinned, took the cup and blew on the steam. “You do?”
“I do, and I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. But holy cow. He’s just a teenager. And he saw me? Like that?”
Lexi paused, and in the swirl of dizziness, Britt thought she saw vengeance there. “No. Wait. I remember his mom saying something about getting him a car for his birthday. Shit.”
“That’s right, this is so shitty,” Britt said, taking a small sip of coffee and burning her tongue. “It’s getting so confusing. I don’t know what to do.”
“Britt, you’re not going to like me saying this but…”
“What?”
Lexi swallowed. “It has to be Diego who submitted them to the contest. There’s no other way they could have gotten there. Someone got a hold of them and copied them—which I take responsibility for doing the dumb shoot in the first place. The credits in the mag give ‘Anonymous’ as the winner. I called the magazine and tried to get information, but due to a privacy policy, they refuse to release the name of the entrant—who also won fifty fucking thousand dollars by using my photography work of your body. There’s no one else besides you, me, Jaxon and Diego who’s had the pics in their hands.”
No, not again. She’d accused him then believed him, now she wavered again.
“No.” Britt pressed a hand to her pitching stomach. “No. I…I think I’m going to throw up. It’s not him. I really don’t think it’s him—and it’s not because I’m heart-whipped. I talked to him about this and I believe him. In fact, he’s hell-bent on finding the bastard who did do this.”
Lexi rounded the counter and took Britt in her arms, her wild-scented perfume filling Britt’s nostrils and making her even more nauseated. Lexi rubbed her back and cooed, “I’m so sorry, Britty, I’m so sorry. I would never hurt you intentionally. Never. B-but I think he would.”
His words reverberated in her mind, words she’d held on to at the time like a lovesick teen. Ah, babe, you might be the one tied up, but let me tell you, you’ve got my heart imprisoned. I’m falling hard.
Falling hard, yes, and so was she.
“He used me, true.” Speaking it made it even more real. Britt wiggled herself out of Lexi’s embrace and stared at her, wishing to god Diego was here with her to help her explain this whole mess. “You, or someone in your shop, gave him my pictures by accident. He didn’t realize it until he got home and had the pictures out. He…he was mesmerized and couldn’t resist looking at them all. He says he fell in love from that moment on, even reenacting several of the poses with me. But he returned them right away and got his—the ones of his son.”
Lexi’s eyes flared in shock, but Britt went on. “Yes, we’ve been together ever since and we’ve made phenomenal love. He tied me up and took me to places I’ve never been to before. I even had a few déjà vu moments about our lovemaking mirroring the poses, but I dismissed them like some obsessed, lovesick, sappy idiot.”
Lexi heaved a sigh. Suspicion and dread darkened her eyes. “Lovesick? Aw shit, Britty. Please tell me you’re not in love with him.”
“No, I-I… Oh Lexi, I don’t know. I can’t figure it all out. But please. It can’t be him.” Britt stumbled back and crashed into the wall right next to the trash can. She slid down the cold surface and collapsed on the floor in a crumpled mess.
“Britty, sweetheart, please don’t—”
“No, no,” she wailed, burying her face in her hands. “It can’t be. Please tell me I’m not in love with a man who can manipulate me into believing him one minute then I talk to you and I’m thinking maybe he’s a no-good loser.”
Lexi sat on the floor Indian-style. She took Britt’s hands in hers. “You’re not in love with that no-good, untrustwort
hy ‘hoodlum’. I hope.”
Emotions washed through her, ones that made her chest ache and her body long for a man who wasn’t even a real man after all. “I… I-I think it’s too late. I think I am in love with him.”
“Yes. I know.” Lexi blew out a resigned breath. “You’re in love with him.”
“Why didn’t I listen to you and Doris?”
Lexi pulled a face. “You didn’t listen to Doris because, well, Doris is always dissing your choices.” She smiled and a fond twinkle lit her eyes. She brushed a strand of hair from Britt’s forehead. “And you didn’t listen to me because you were in love from the first moment you met him. Hell, I could have been in love with him if it weren’t for the fact I was too busy worrying over the pictures and trying to steer you clear of him.”
“He brought the pictures back that night.”
Lexi nodded in short jerks. “Yes. He had pictures of his own, and his address is in our computer system. That’s how I knew where to find you the night I burst in on you at his house. I about shit an elephant when I saw you two talking at the store.”
Ah, his address in the store computer. So many unanswered things are becoming clear now.
In all the confusion, she’d forgotten about that, about questioning how Lexi had known where to find her. But it wasn’t important anymore.
“I swear I wasn’t trying to be deceitful, Britt. I just didn’t see any need to alarm you when, at the time, I assumed the fuckup with the missing pictures was over. When I banged on Diego’s door that night, I had no idea they were going to show up in the magazine—but as I said, I think he did. And I about shit elephant number two when he sat all smug-like at his house. We argued outside that night.”
“You did?”
She nodded, glanced away with a guilty flush. “Yes, and I know I should have told you. We argued so loud, I’m surprised you didn’t hear us. But what ended up happening was, he sort of blackmailed me.”
“What?”
“Well, I kind of started it. I told him I’d inform you that he’d looked at your private pictures and asked you on a date just so he could see how many of those poses he could get you to reenact. In spite of the fact he’s the epitome of the bad-boy poster guy, I talked myself into thinking he wouldn’t dare get all kinky with you the same way as in the pics. But it sounds like my initial instincts were right from the start.”
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