Scandal (A Dirty Money Novel)

by Isabella Starling

  Alex smiled at me when we were left alone. “Thanks for helping out with the party last night. Nothing was destroyed, and everything was cleaned up perfectly. So my job with Robert is safe.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “I also…uh…”

  His voice trailed off, and I arched an eyebrow. “What?”

  “I sort of overheard you and Asher last night, having some sort of argument in the hall at the party.”

  A chill seeped through me. Shit, how much had he heard? More to the point, had he seen anything? The last thing I needed was anyone knowing I’d hooked up with my soon-to-be stepbrother.

  More than once, too.

  “Oh,” I said simply, waiting for him to go on.

  “Anyway, I didn’t stick around and listen to your whole conversation, but I heard you guys getting into it and you sounded pretty mad. So I just wanted to say sorry about what an asshole he can be. My dad is the head landscaper here at Briarwood, so I’ve pretty much grown up around here, and I know how difficult Asher can be.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he hadn’t seen or heard any of the more passionate stuff going on between Asher and me last night. “It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t need to apologize for his crappy behavior.”

  Alex nodded. “Yeah, I know, I just felt kinda responsible, seeing as I asked you to come to the party, which got him all pissed. Anyway, I’ll leave you and Mercedes to hang out.”

  “Okay. See you later.”

  “Bye, Alex!” Mercedes yelled from the bathroom. She returned to the bedroom a moment later, and she stared at the door which Alex had just exited through. “So are we going to discuss the elephant in the room?” she asked.

  I raised my eyebrows at her. “What elephant?”

  “Are you serious? That Alex guy!”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s cute,” she replied. “Really, really cute.”

  “You think?”

  “Uh, yeah. Unless you’re blind you can’t exactly miss it,” she said. “So why don’t you date him? Instead of constantly falling back into Doucher’s arms.”

  “Doucher?”

  “Asher’s new nickname. I just thought of it.”

  I laughed at that. “I don’t look at Alex like that. He’s just a friend.”

  Mercedes didn’t look convinced. “Okay, well, I’m just sayin’. You need someone to take your mind off Asher and all his stupid games. So if you won’t go on a date with Alex, at least promise me you’ll think about going on a date with someone else. Literally anyone else but Asher.”

  I smiled. “I promise I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. Anyway, I have to go help my mom test new fragrances at the company this afternoon, so I better head off.”

  After she left, I messed around on my laptop for a while, and in the afternoon, my cell phone buzzed on my bedside table. I didn’t recognize the number calling me, so I frowned and answered tentatively. “Hello?”

  “Hey, beautiful. It’s me. Liam Prescott.”

  “Oh, hi, Liam,” I said. “How’d you get my number?”

  “I have my ways. But are you glad I got it?”

  I giggled softly. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “I’ll take it,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyway, how do you feel about hanging out tomorrow? Lunch at Zavanelli’s Café?”

  I chewed on my lower lip for a moment, considering the question. It sounded like Liam was asking me on a date, although with guys these days, it was hard to tell. They never asked properly anymore; it was always just ‘Hey, wanna hang out?’ which absolved them of any responsibility if they led the girl on too much and then got freaked out by her feelings, or if they wanted to see other girls at the same time and got caught. All they had to say if that happened was ‘I never said we were dating, we were just hanging out’.

  Then again, if he wasn’t interested in me, Liam wouldn’t have made an effort to get my number. This was almost definitely a romantic gesture, no matter how vague, and Mercedes had been right earlier—I needed a distraction from Asher and all his bullshit games.

  “Sure,” I replied with a smile. “It’s a date.”

  Thirteen

  Asher

  I was getting ready to grab a quick bite before I headed into town when my cell started vibrating in my pocket. Taking a quick look in the full-length mirror in my bedroom, I grinned at my immaculate image before answering the call. It was Liam—we were supposed to meet later on to get some drinks at our favorite bar.

  “Hey, man,” he said when I picked up the phone. There was a hint of trepidation in his voice, but I didn’t care. Ever since I saw him sneaking off with Chloe, I’d been pissed at the guy, and later today, he was supposedly going to make amends for hitting on my soon-to-be stepsister. The mere thought of them together pissed me off, and the sound of Liam’s voice was already annoying me.

  “What’s up?” I asked, lazily smoothing down my dark hair. “Don’t fucking tell me you’re canceling on me, you flake.”

  “Nah.” He laughed nervously and I could tell something was up. “I just… wanted to give you full disclosure.”

  My fingers tightened into fists and my mouth was set in a thin line as I barked a reply down the line. “Full disclosure about what? Am I going to want to kill you after you tell me?”

  “Probably.” Liam swallowed hard before he delivered the news. “I’m at Zavanelli’s right now. I’m meeting someone for lunch.”

  “So?” I asked, feeling impatient. We weren’t meeting for a few hours, and I couldn’t have cared less about Liam’s dining arrangements. “What’s that got to do with me?”

  “Well, uh,” he started lamely. “I’m kind of going on a date.”

  Before he even gave me her name, I felt my blood boiling in my veins. I wanted to punch something, watch my fucking fist go right through a wall and imagine it was Liam’s face instead. “With who?” I asked coolly, getting ready to scream bloody murder down the line.

  Liam sighed, prolonging the inevitable moment when he’d have to tell me the name of the mystery girl, even though we both already knew who it was. “It’s Chloe,” he said, and after that, the words really started spilling out of his mouth. “I just wanted to let you know before she did. Sorry, man. It’s just, she’s really fucking hot and it’s hard to stay away. You must know what I mean, right?”

  “You’re fucking dead,” I growled at him. I cut the call before he could get another word in. If they were really meeting at Zavanelli’s, which was a short drive from the house, I needed to bust Chloe on her way out, before she got into her car. Throwing my cell on the bed, I rushed out of my room and down the hallway. I heard the telltale clicking sound of high heels going down the stairs, and I intercepted Chloe before she could take another step.

  I stood in front of her, staring, and she looked back at me with annoyance in her gaze when I blocked her path. She looked stunning in a dark red dress that complemented her blue eyes, dark hair and fair complexion, but I didn’t give a shit about that right now. I just glared at her, my hand seizing her wrist, making her gasp out loud when I pulled her body closer to mine.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” I asked. She struggled against my grasp, but I was too strong for her to wrestle free, and I wasn’t having any of the shit she and Liam were feeding me. “Hot date in town?”

  “I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” she replied in a clipped tone, finally accepting the fact that I wouldn’t let go of her hand that easily. “Now could you let me go, please? I don’t want to be late for this.”

  “You won’t be late,” I growled. “Because you’re not fucking going.”

  “Excuse me?” she said, eyes narrowed and lit with anger. She sounded scandalized, but I was dead fucking serious. There was no damn way she was seeing Liam behind my back. It disgusted me even more than the friendship she had with Alex all of a sudden. “You think you can just boss me around like that? Think again, A
sher.”

  “I don’t need to,” I said. “You’re gonna do exactly as I say.”

  “You don’t fucking own me! I don’t give a shit what you said last night; this isn’t the eighteenth century, Asher!” she replied, eyes blazing hotter. She sounded pissed as hell, and this time, when she tried to wrench her arm out of my grasp, she caught me by surprise and managed to rip herself free. “You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m allowed to make new friends if I want, and I’m allowed to do that with Liam. Now get the hell out of my way before I scream.”

  “Go ahead. Who’s gonna hear you?” I was taunting her, but I didn’t give a fuck. I needed to make sure she understood Liam wasn’t the guy for her. She needed to accept the fact that I played by my own rules, and if I said she wasn’t seeing him for lunch—or anything else, for that matter—that was fucking it. No arguments. This was my house, after all.

  “Our parents are gone,” I went on. “Alex is running errands for my dad and every maid in here is too goddamned scared of me to let you do what you want. If you know what’s best for you, Chloe, you’ll be a good girl and go back to your damn room.”

  She huffed as she stared at me, and to my surprise, I noticed tears welling in her eyes as she crossed her arms in front of her body and glared at me. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?” she asked, her voice shaky and desperate. “Why don’t you just let me do what I want and let me be? You’re so hot and cold, I never know what the hell your issue is!”

  I contemplated my answer. I could lie again, feed her some bullshit about wanting to mess with her head, but the tears in her eyes made something inside me melt. It was time to finally tell her the truth. I reached for her forearm but she flinched away from my touch, and it hurt, seeing her move away from me like that, as if I were fucking poisonous.

  “I just don’t want you mixing with the wrong crowd,” I said. “I told you already, Liam’s bad news. He likes innocent girls…likes to screw them and leave them, that is.”

  “I wasn’t going to hook up with him. And besides, you say all that crap about him, but he’s your best friend,” she pointed out, making me chuckle.

  “I know.”

  “So what does that say about you? Why should I spend time with you, but not him?” she asked, dabbing at her eyes angrily but still carefully enough so as to not ruin her makeup. “What makes you so much better than he is? What makes you any different?”

  I didn’t mean to, but my body acted of its own accord, wrapping my arm around Chloe’s small waist and pulling her flush against me. She gasped softly when I did it, and with our mouths mere inches apart, I could barely contain myself.

  “The difference is that I’m not going to hurt you,” I told her softly, and her eyes opened wide, looking into mine. “I’m not going to be a dick and use you. I want you, Chloe. I don’t want you mixing with the wrong people who are just going to use you and ditch you.”

  “But…I…” She was struggling to get the words out, especially when my free hand went to the back of her neck and squeezed the soft skin on her nape gently. “We can’t be doing this,” she finally managed to get out. “Not with everything that’s going on with our families, our parents.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said quietly.

  “And you’ve been acting so weird around me since I arrived here, Asher. You’ve been a real asshole, actually,” she continued, her eyes flashing with an accusatory gleam.

  “I know,” I said, pulling on her ponytail gently. She moaned, the softest of sounds I could’ve easily missed had she not parted her lips and looked at me when she did it. “Look, I’ve been a massive dick, I know that. It’s just…honestly, I’ve been trying to put you off me.”

  She tilted her head slightly with confusion. “Why?”

  I hesitated for a few seconds before replying. “Because I’m worried I’ll fuck everything up. With you, with my dad, with your mom. And I don’t want to. It’s goddamned pathetic but it’s the truth.”

  “Oh. I get it,” she replied softly. She paused before speaking up again, her voice even quieter now. “I feel the same way.”

  Her body went rigid in my arms and I knew she was worrying about the same shit that was troubling me as well. She wanted to push me away, because it was the wisest thing to do in the situation, but she couldn’t muster up the courage to say no to me, because she knew it would end this delicious torment I was putting her through. And even though Chloe didn’t want to admit it, a part of her craved it badly. I could see it in her eyes; the way they smoldered when she looked into mine.

  “Something’s gonna come between us,” she said softly, and I nodded.

  “I know.”

  “We can’t be together.”

  “I know.”

  “We should try to move on. Try to stay away from each other.” As she said that, her arms went up and wrapped around my neck. They were cool and pleasant against my hot skin, and I desperately wanted her exploring every inch of my body.

  “We’re doing a great job with that,” I teased her, and a small smile lit up her face. My hand slid from her neck, trailing down her back and coming to rest on her hip. If I were smart, I’d pull away right now before we got ourselves into even more trouble, but I was kinda known for my bad decisions, and I wasn’t going to change my ways right now. “I guess we should stop.”

  “Yeah, we probably should.” Chloe breathed softly against my lips and I groaned. Having her this close to me without so much as feeling her mouth against mine was driving me insane, and judging by the lustful gaze she was flashing my way, Chloe was in a similar predicament. I kept waiting for something to happen, for someone to interrupt us and stop this in its tracks like it always had up until now, but we were left alone, the manor echoing with its own emptiness.

  For once, Chloe wasn’t pulling away from me. She wasn’t fighting this attraction between us or telling me to stop, and in my mind, I was transported to that night in my apartment when she sucked me off and made me cum in her pouty little mouth. Having her in my arms again felt too fucking good to resist anymore, and as my eyes connected with hers, we both realized we weren’t going to fight this sensation any longer.

  Slowly, I put my lips against her, barely touching her. Her sweet little tongue poked out of her mouth and she licked her bottom lip hungrily, biting down into its plumpness. And then my mouth was on hers, and I was kissing her, and there was no going back from it. She tasted fucking good, just the way I remembered, sweet and forbidden and oh-so-delicious. Her lips parted as she moaned against mine, the sound so sweet that it made me pull her even closer. We were out in the open this time, right under everyone’s noses, but I was fairly certain nobody was going to interrupt us. If they did, I’d fucking punch them.

  I kissed her long and hard and deep, claiming her lips with the motions of mine. She parted them wider, allowing my tongue to slip between them and taste her naughty mouth, and I groaned, my hands tangling in her hair and pulling her against me. She was fucking amazing, and with every second I spent touching those full lips, she had me regretting not making her mine sooner.

  “I need you,” she moaned against my lips, and her shaky hands went to the lapels on my blazer, pulling me as close as she could possibly manage while she was trembling so badly. “Please, Asher. Don’t play any more games with me, I’m sick of them.”

  “Okay, princess,” I replied. “No more games, I promise.” I pulled away from her, my fingertips gliding along her full lips and making her part them wider with her eyes zeroing in on mine. “Come with me.”

  She put her hand in mine along with her trust, and I pulled her toward my bedroom. Neither of us hesitated for a single second, not until we were safely behind my locked door. I closed the curtains with the flick of a switch and advanced on her, my intentions clear as I reached for the hem of her dress.

  “Oh my god,” she breathed, her voice throaty and so sinful it had my cock twitching in my pants. “Fuck, Asher, please. Don’t stop.”<
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  I groaned as my hand wandered under her dress, feeling the curve of her pert ass clad in lacy lingerie. “Take this off,” I demanded, impatiently pulling on the hem of the dress. “Strip for me, princess. I want to see you naked.”

  I sat down in a plush velvet armchair and patted my knee for her to join me once she was finished. For a moment, Chloe glowered at me, the embarrassment plain in her eyes and burning cheeks, but finally, she reached for the zipper on the back of her dress and pulled it down. The silky red fabric pooled at her feet and my eyes drank her in hungrily.

  She stepped out of the dress, now clad only in a pair of dark red heels and black lacy lingerie that had my mind going places I would’ve been afraid of mere hours ago. She came closer to me without further instruction, and I was shocked by her willingness, the sheer need in her eyes as she straddled me, grinding her pussy against the obvious bulge in my pants.

  “Jesus,” I groaned. “Fuck, you feel good, Chloe. Keep doing that.”

  She whimpered and pushed her tits against me, her head going back as she slipped the elastic out of her hair. Her dark curls tumbled down her back as I touched her throat, my fingers feeling her pulse and then wandering lower, down her chest and right over her tits. She sighed with need, grabbing my hands and pushing them under the lacy cups of her bra, wanting me to touch her skin. As soon as my fingers brushed her nipples, my cock felt like it was going to explode, it was so damn full for her, nearly bursting at the seams.

  She reached behind her back and undid the clasp of her bra, letting it fall down into my lap. Her tits were free now, beautiful and perky, her rosy nipples tightening under my watchful gaze. I licked my lips before sucking one of them into my mouth, and Chloe mewled as I felt her nipple tighten into a tight bud. Her hands went to my shirt, shaking as she tried to undo every button at once and pull off my blazer at the same time. I helped her with it, shrugging off my clothes when she was done and pulling her against me. I needed to feel her naked skin on mine, feel the heat and the cold mixing together.