Heir's Affair

by Scarlett Finn

  “It’s not inconvenient.”

  He said the last word in a weird voice, but she chose to ignore it. His mood was irrelevant, all she had to do was let him get it on. The sooner he did. The sooner she could split.

  “Good,” she said, pulling back the covers on his side. “Get in.”

  Wearing a smile, he dropped the towel and slid in beside her. “You’re eager.”

  Rolling toward her, he tried to scoop a hand to the side of her face, but she shook it away and pushed it down. “You don’t need to kiss me.”

  “I don’t need—”

  “No,” she said, dropping onto her back.

  “Oh… kay,” he said and laid a hand on her belly, sliding it down toward—

  “You don’t need to do that either,” she said, moving his hand away and picking up the covers to check that he was erect. “You’re hard, just stick it in.”

  His hand rose toward her only to fall onto his leg. “What?”

  “You’re erect,” she said and opened her legs. “Just put it in me.”

  “I’m hard because you’re naked and you’re hot… and I missed you.” He tried to comb his fingers into her hair, but she swatted his hand away. His frustration didn’t come out in a growl, but he did grit his teeth. “What about you? You wet for me, baby?”

  “You know the friction will cause that,” she said, sliding her hand up under the pillow beneath her head. “But just in case…”

  Tally was about to pop the cap off the tube when he grabbed it from her. “Lube?” he snapped, glaring at the item he found so offensive. “Are you fucking kidding me? Since when do I need lube to fuck you?”

  He launched it across the room.

  The dramatics didn’t impress her. “You don’t need it,” she said and dropped a hand to her pubis so she could rub her clit. “If it’s that upsetting to you, just give me a minute.”

  Closing her eyes, she stimulated herself, trying to encourage the natural juice he seemed to need. One demand clashed with another and she was frustrated. It wasn’t just enough that she showed up anymore, she had to be primed too.

  “Don’t you fucking do that,” he said, grabbing her hand away from its task. “Open your fucking eyes, look at me.”

  Doing as she was told, she couldn’t change the blank expression on her face. At least, not until he tried to take her fingers to his mouth.

  Sneering, Tally recoiled, pulling her hand away. “Don’t do that.”

  “Taste you? Since fucking when—”

  “Look, Max, can you do the teenage tantrum later? I’m here. We’re here. Just put it in. Have your way. And get it the hell over with!”

  Letting her go, he sat up. Drawing his knees higher, he rested an elbow on one and scooped a hand through his hair. This was… odd. Tally hadn’t meant to annoy him. The last thing she had time to do was coddle his hurt feelings.

  “This isn’t right,” he muttered after a minute of saying nothing at all.

  Still behind him, she sat up, holding the sheet to her chest. “Want me to jerk you off?”

  Pushing her lips to one side, she was trying to think of how she could best ensure he was sated without having to deal with any drama. It was impossible for her to feel anything around him anymore. This was her duty. A task to be completed. While she still had affection for him, it didn’t help her to give in to those softer feelings, not when he wasn’t really hers anymore.

  Twisting around, there was a glare in his eye when he grumbled, “Would you listen to yourself?”

  “What?” she asked. “I’ll blow you if you prefer.” Though she’d kind of rather not, it might be the best way to get him to the finish. But, he didn’t seem moved and she was growing impatient. “If it’s my ass you want, just do it…” Her attention drifted to the window. “I’ve suffered every other indignity.”

  He moved so fast when he flew out of the bed that she almost gasped. “How the fuck can you talk like that to me?”

  “What?” she asked, crossing her legs beneath the sheet. “You can do whatever you want. I’m basically your wank sock.”

  “That’s what you think you are?” he asked, standing facing the bed. “My sex toy?”

  “Yep,” she said, unable to even think about a smile as she flopped onto the bed and let her head roll in the direction of the closet.

  Seemed like her paperwork was going to keep her up all night. She’d just have to lay here and wait until he decided what he wanted.

  The deep well of nothingness inside her only grew when she was here. The chasm between who she was and who she wanted to be increased. Her fingertips touched her hair and she let them move within it.

  She was drifting on her own thoughts when the sheet was suddenly whipped away from her body. Her head rolled and she was shocked to see Max standing at the end of the bed, looking at her body.

  “Close your eyes, Boss,” he said.

  But, she didn’t. Squeezing her legs tight together, she had a sense of what he was thinking, but she grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it over her again. “This isn’t what it used to be.”

  “Why not? Why isn’t it the same?”

  “Because if I give myself to you like I let myself be with him, I won’t be able to endure this anymore.”

  Sitting on the end of the bed, he tried to touch her ankle, but she withdrew, curling her legs up toward her body. “Him?” he said. “You mean me.”

  She swallowed. “I mean who you were. The Max I still love.”

  His chin moved toward the window. “That’s not who I am anymore.”

  No, it wasn’t, and it was progress that she didn’t have to be the one to tell him that. Coming to terms with who he was would help him to better fit in and find his place in this new world.

  “No, it’s not.” Sitting up, Tally was wondering what he wanted from her. “So… you want a blowjob, or…”

  “I don’t want to fuck you.”

  There was a time those words would have ripped at her guts. This time, she got a surge of excitement and leaped off the bed. “Good, I have work to do, and I’m sure you do too, so…”

  Dashing across the room, she grabbed her robe and pulled it on. She was tying the belt when he uttered his next words.

  “You’re fired.”

  The length of fabric in her fingers fell when they loosened, and her head slowly rose. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right and had to take a second just to process the words. Slowly, she turned around to look at him.

  Creeping a step closer, Tally peered at the man seated on the edge of the bed, the one she didn’t recognize as hers anymore. “What?”

  “Your services are no longer required, Tallulah…” Raising his attention, he locked his eyes on hers. “You can go.”

  The last thing she’d expected was to be freed from the life that she’d come to loathe. Once upon a time, she’d have given anything to be with Max. But, she’d always known it would never happen. The man she loved didn’t live here. Teddy wouldn’t let him be him, and he wouldn’t let her treat Max like anything less than the heir he was.

  Being intimate with him had been incredible at the start when she’d mistaken it for what they had before. But, it wasn’t. Never had it been starker than when she’d had to creep out of his bed, while still wracked with the effects of orgasm, quivering through after-shocks, and having to leave the room.

  Tally couldn’t have a boyfriend, or love a man, who she wasn’t allowed to talk to or rely on. This wasn’t a real relationship. It was an illusion and he was freeing her from it.

  “I can…” A smile burst to her face in time with her gasp of joy. “Oh my God.” Tally let a squeal of delight leave her lips, but she took both hands up to cover her mouth. “Thank you, Max! Oh my God, thank you.”

  Rushing over to him, she put both arms around his neck to hold him. Being free of the contract meant never seeing him again. But, she’d had to come to terms with giving up the man she loved weeks ago.

  “If this wa
s what you wanted, why didn’t you just tell me?”

  Easing back, she looked him in the eye. Letting her go meant giving up the last part of himself, and that couldn’t be easy. A world of possibility lay before him and he’d embrace that in time. But, it couldn’t be easy for him to hear how she was happy with the idea of leaving him.

  “We both held on longer than we should have,” she said, touching his face. “But, this is the only way this could have ended… There was never any other way.”

  He’d stopped fighting her. Somehow, he knew it was time because he didn’t even try to change her mind or disagree with her. “What do you need from me?”

  Backing away, she knew this was it. The last moment she’d share with Max… her Max or this one. “Nothing,” she said, continuing to move in reverse. “This gift is the best you can give me.”

  Turning around, she opened the door, but he spoke again before she left. “The Strettons were your whole world until I became one of them… now they’re your worst enemy.”

  “Only because they took the man I love from me,” she said to her shoulder without looking at him before leaving the bedroom to cross the living room.

  It hurt.

  To be free was everything she’d wanted for weeks and now that it was happening she couldn’t consolidate the joy with the pain. Max was gone. Her Max was no longer an option for her or any woman. But this was hard, harder than she’d let herself think it would be.

  “I changed my mind.”

  The sound of his voice made her spin around. Max was coming toward her, stalking across the room. “You won’t let me leave?”

  Crouching down, he didn’t miss a beat when he scooped her up and rushed her back against the wall. “I do want to fuck you,” he growled and plunged his tongue into her mouth.

  There was no option to say no to his kiss. Her head was trapped between him and the wall. Hooking a hand around her thigh inside her robe, he didn’t give her the option to refuse sex either.

  But, she didn’t want to say no. This man was more hers than any she’d slept with since signing that damn contract. Now she was free, he was letting her go, and he was trying his damndest to be the man he’d once been to satisfy her.

  The strength of his thrusts and the entitlement in those possessive hands reminded her of the Max who’d wanted her so bad he hadn’t been able to refuse her.

  This Max was her Max. Sure. Arrogant. Determined. This was the Max who hadn’t cared about Teddy’s rules or insulting anyone. This Max wanted her. All of her, and in these final few seconds they shared, she was going to give herself to him again, one last time.

  Neither of them had said a word after they’d both come. Max had let her feet drift to the floor and then he’d stepped away. Just like the first night, when they’d done it in roughly the same spot, and like the old days, as soon as they were done, she bolted.

  It was poetic really that their relationship ended the way it had begun with sex against the wall and her running for the hills the moment it was over.

  She packed the essentials that totaled all she’d accumulated in life, into two suitcases, and left the Stretton Estate for the last time.

  Without anywhere to go, and with nowhere to belong, Tally didn’t think too hard about where she was headed.

  She’d been to Fitzpatrick’s in the last month, though she refused to talk about Max. But, she’d never brought all her worldly possessions with her before. So, the moment she pulled her cases to a halt and climbed up onto a stool, a peace settled over the place.

  “Tequila,” she said without even looking at Trey who was on the other side of the bar. He went to retrieve the bottle and a glass and came back a few seconds later. “Leave the bottle.”

  Slipping a hand into her pocket, she pulled out a diamond to match the one Max had given the bartender on their first night here.

  “Put your money away, MG,” Trey said, pushing the diamond back toward her.

  An ironic smile slid to her lips, but she picked up the glass and tossed back the measure. “Just G now, Trey,” she said, pouring more liquor into her glass. “Just G with nowhere to go, no one to turn to, no roof over her head.” Throwing the next measure back into her throat, she was less careful about pouring the third. “No man. No job. No home… I’m really doing a good job of life.”

  A posse of bodies crowded in around the back of her and she didn’t need to look up to know the guys were closing in. “What happened?” Robbie asked, sliding onto the stool next to hers.

  “Got fired,” she said and drank more booze.

  It probably wasn’t smart for her to get drunk when she had no idea where she was going to spend the night. But, if she ended up under a table in Fitzpatrick’s, she was sure someone would throw a coat over her or something.

  “No! I don’t fucking believe it. I don’t believe Max would let that—”

  She snorted. “He was the one who did it.” The guys were all mumbling their objections and disbelief, but she waved a loose hand over her shoulder. “It’s ok, it’s fine. It’s what I wanted. It’s for the best.”

  “For the best to be out on the street?” Ryan asked.

  “She’s not on the street,” Robbie said. “She’s here. We’ve got her.” Tally was sipping her drink when she turned her eyes to him. “You can work with us at the garage. You do the books anyway, you can come answer phones or something until you get on your feet.”

  Ryan laughed. “Yeah, maybe we’ll actually show up to work if there’s someone there booking in jobs and ordering parts.”

  “I’ll need a motel or something,” she said. “I won’t intrude on any of you.”

  “Rob lives like a slob, you’d end up with a disease if you stayed at his place,” Ryan said.

  She managed to broaden her smile. Filling her glass again, Tally gave herself a mental pat on the back. Coming here had been a good idea; the guys were helping her to relax. Robbie was digging in his pocket and she sighed into her glass after drinking.

  This was good. The alcohol. The atmosphere. The people. Slapping a hand on the bar, Robbie slid it away to reveal there was a key beneath it. “Good thing I’ve got an apartment on standby for her.”

  “An apartment,” she said, looping the keychain through her thumb to pick it up. “What are you…” Clarity made her whip around. “This is Max’s key.”

  “No, it’s your key,” Robbie said, putting an arm around her. “You need a place to stay and it’s sitting there empty. I know it might be weird, but we’ll air the place out, help you unpack. You can make it yours.” Examining the key, she couldn’t help but feel trepidation. “It’s not like he’s coming back… is it?”

  No, it wasn’t. Robbie was right that it would be weird. But, Max’s place was the only place that had been close to home other than the Stretton Estate and she wouldn’t ever go back there. It wasn’t like Tally had a lot of options. Max’s place was empty, so she guessed it wouldn’t hurt to stay there, at least for a while, until she could figure something else out.

  Her Max hadn’t wronged her, neither had Max Stretton, not really, they just weren’t compatible. Coming to terms with life without Max was going to take time, and if she could hold onto some thread of the love they’d once had, she wasn’t going to pass that chance up.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “I don’t get how there can be a sex contract,” Robbie said.

  Sitting in a sort of circle in the living room around a bunch of wood and cardboard, Tally and the guys were trying to figure out how to build the bookcase she’d bought. She’d started to garner a collection of books and there was space behind the front door for some shelves, so she figured this piece of furniture was as good a start as any in making the place more her own.

  During her days at the garage when she wasn’t doing her paperwork or answering calls, the guys didn’t mind her reading. It brought her comfort and that was in short supply these days.

  “It wasn’t a sex contract,” she said. “I guess it’
s more like a prenup… but without the nup… It’s a pre-affair contract, I guess, with NDA and all that.”

  It had been almost a month since she’d left the Stretton Estate and she was just beginning to feel like life could maybe go on.

  Most days she still thought of Max or things they’d done together. Living in his apartment was a constant reminder of him and their relationship. But, she had changed up some things and the place was much cleaner than it ever had been when he lived here alone. Each day, it was beginning to feel a little more like hers and a little less like his.

  “Sounds like a sex contract,” Bobby said.

  The coffee table was under the window and the couch pushed back to give them more room to work.

  Sliding up onto the armchair she’d once shared with Max, Tally was on instructions duty. The guys were sure they knew what they were doing, but she was going to keep an eye on things and direct them as best she could without being too obvious about it.

  After all these weeks, she was only just getting to a place where she could talk about Max. At first, it had been happy memories and reminiscing. But the guys had started to ask about what had happened while he was there and why they had decided not to be together.

  Explaining the mistress contract was mortifying, but it was nice to see their reactions because they were in support of her position. Her relationship with Max had been so great precisely because it was so organic and not forced or contrived; contorted by rules and regulations and boundaries.

  But, the guys were still trying to figure it out.

  “It’s not a sex contract,” she said. “Well, yeah, I mean, it’s something like that. But, it’s not explicit. And, there’s no exchange for cash. I wasn’t paid to be his mistress. Things were unusual in my situation because I was already an employee. I was paid to be the family liaison, the same as I always was. The mistress contract was just implication and suggestion.”

  “I don’t get it,” Bobby muttered, confusing himself with a pile of screws, but glancing up at her to indicate she was the one confusing him.