Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss

by Yvonne Lindsay

  He let go of her skirt and she saw his hand fly to his belt, easing the leather from its catch, before he slid his zipper down and let his trousers drop to the floor. He freed himself from his briefs.

  She felt the hot, hard length of him against her, felt him shudder as his velvet hard tip caressed the smooth globes of her backside. Felt him probe between her legs, questing ever closer to the part of her that ached for his possession.

  “Ah hell,” Adam groaned, pulling away from her. “Protection. Don’t move. Not even an inch.”

  She watched in the mirror as he yanked up his trousers and left the room. Her body was trembling with desire, with the need to be taken by him, filled by him. She looked at herself in the mirror and was shocked at the wanton hunger reflected in her image.

  And then, thank God, he was back. He rested one hand on her hip, holding her skirt in his fist, as he eased his length back between her legs. Lainey was grateful for the heels on her shoes as they lifted her slightly, giving Adam easier access to her.

  She bit hard on her lip, fighting back the sound that started deep in the pit of her belly, as he eased into her, stretching her with his delicious fullness until he was buried. He hooked his arm around her pelvis, tilting her back toward him, his hand sliding down the front of her, brushing through her curls and questing for the nub of flesh hidden there.

  He withdrew, then drove into her again and Lainey’s eyes flew to meet his in the mirror, needing a connection with him that went beyond their aching bodies, beyond the absolute physical need that gripped her. His thrusts began at a slow, even tempo, tormenting her as he nudged again and again against the spot deep inside that promised pleasure at heights guaranteed to make her giddy.

  Then his tempo increased, almost frantic in its beat, and suddenly she could hold back no longer, his fingers, his possession, the vision they made in the mirror all coalesced into a wrenching spasm of pleasure so great tears spilled from her eyes as wave after wave consumed her. She pulsed against him, her body out of control and Adam’s arm tightened around her as his hips jerked in response against her buttocks, as his own climax wrung from his body.

  It felt like forever before her heart rate slowed, and her legs ceased their trembling. Adam was bent over her, his breath hot against the back of her neck, his flesh still buried deep within her. She clenched her inner muscles and felt his answering flex instantaneously before he withdrew from her. He dispensed with the condom as she straightened, shimmying her skirt back down over her hips.

  Aside from the flush of satisfaction that colored her throat and her cheeks, and the slightest smudge of her mascara beneath her eyes, no one would have guessed the monumental heights of what she’d experienced only minutes ago. No one but the man cleaning up beside her—and he couldn’t begin to imagine how she felt about him, about making love with him.

  “We’d better go over those notes,” Adam said as he toweled himself dry and rearranged his clothes—transforming from rampant lover to cool collected businessman before her very eyes.

  And just like that the magic was gone. Shattered into a thousand pieces.

  Adam left the bathroom without so much as a casual touch to acknowledge what they’d just shared. Lainey checked her skirt in the mirror, thankful that the material was crush proof. A clean pair of panties and no one would be any the wiser. But she knew in her heart of hearts that it would take more than a clean pair of panties to put things to rights for her.

  She forced herself to stop thinking about the toll their lovemaking took on her emotions and about how hope died another death with every time he walked away. She made the necessary repairs to her makeup and rejoined him in the living area of the suite, presenting him with the woman he expected.

  Back to business as usual.

  Adam watched Lainey across the VIP gaming room floor as she sat together with a group from the firm they’d met with most of yesterday and today, and tried to stem the flood of heat that pooled low in his body. He’d thought this weekend he’d have been able to sate himself with her, and he’d tried. But it hadn’t been nearly enough. Each taste only strengthened his appetite for more.

  The teal-colored evening gown she wore made her eyes glow and he fought with the surge of jealousy that rose within him as she leaned closer to the CEO of the Melbourne-based importing conglomerate they’d been in negotiations with, and spoke conspiratorially in his ear. Jealousy was swiftly replaced with something darker, something almost tribal, as the older man’s eyes dropped to Lainey’s décolletage and lingered there.

  Right now the man could take his business and go hang. He had no right to look at Lainey as if she were some tasty morsel for his selection.

  Suddenly Adam had had enough. Enough of games, enough of gambling, enough of watching other men fawn over his woman.

  His woman? Ha, that was a joke. She was only his for as long as he paid her to be, and for some reason that stung in the back of his mind. The thought that another man could come along and entice her with a bigger checkbook suddenly occurred to him, but he rejected the idea out of hand. He’d do what it took to keep her at his side for as long as he still wanted her. She was his companion, and right now he was in need of some of that companionship.

  When they returned to their suite at the hotel he was all over her, uncontrollable in his need to possess—his need to stamp his brand on her body, her mind. To make her irrevocably his. And when, as he brought her to another shattering orgasm, Lainey cried out her love for him, he felt complete in a way he’d never felt before. She was his. Totally and utterly.

  Later, much later, with Lainey’s sleeping form spread over his body like warm honey, Adam stared up at the ceiling of the hotel bedroom trying to put together the pieces that made up the conundrum of the woman who in a few days had brought him more pleasure than any of his previous lovers combined.

  Her uncontrolled exclamation of love still echoed in his ears, sending a chill down his spine. Love. What did he know of love? And how realistic could that declaration be when made with the tune of several dollar signs behind it? Did she think he expected that of her? That he’d be satisfied with a facsimile of the real thing?

  He thought about his experience of love within his family and his own belief that love came with expectations and responsibilities that one had to live up to. Expectations and responsibilities he took pains to meet every single day of his life. As a surviving twin, he’d always felt as if he’d had to make it up to his parents that they hadn’t had the two sons born to them. Complications in utero toward the end of the pregnancy had meant he’d robbed his twin of vital nutrients, leaving his brother weaker and smaller when they were born. Then, when a virus had hit the neonatal unit at the hospital, his brother had lacked the strength to fight back and had died at only five days old.

  Realistically Adam knew he couldn’t possibly be held to blame for his twin’s death, but deep down he’d always believed his parents had deserved more than just him. He’d never felt as if just he had been enough and growing up he’d known that his brother’s loss had impacted negatively on the relationship his parents shared.

  They’d lived and worked together their entire marriage, yet Adam knew, felt, something was missing.

  All his life he’d strived for excellence, to be twice as good as any other man. He’d competed fiercely with his cousin, Brent, at the private school his father had sent them to, both academically and out of school. If Brent came up with a hare-brained risky scheme to test their manhood, Adam had always racked his brain to come up with one better. Their friend, Draco Sandrelli, would always laugh at what they’d dreamed up, before getting right behind them.

  He’d had little time for relationships with anyone other than his best friends and his parents. Had little inclination to delve past the peripheral with anyone else. And yet he knew there was a vital part of his life that was missing something. Something he’d now discovered in Lainey’s arms, in her caresses, in her unabashed acceptance of their physical nee
d for one another.

  Lainey stirred, her breath a soft whisper across his chest, her hair like silk over his skin. He tightened his arm around her waist, holding her to him as if he could infuse her somehow along the length of his body and merge their bodies together forever. She was like a drug to him. The more he tasted, the more he wanted. And the more she gave. Unstintingly.

  Yet she asked for nothing extra in return. This weekend had given her the opportunity to basically have his open checkbook at her disposal and to his surprise, she hadn’t appeared at all interested in spending his money. Still, he rationalized, if she needed money to repay debt, then shopping would hardly be her top priority.

  Questions chased around in his head. He thought back to when he’d told her they’d be attending the casino tonight, expecting her to show a generous amount of enthusiasm for the evening ahead. Instead, she’d been almost nervous as they’d entered the VIP gaming room, not even showing the slightest inclination in having a flutter on the tables.

  Certainly not the behavior of an avid gambler—unless, of course, her debt to Ling was so big that she didn’t dare incur any more. But even then, her conduct had been opposite to what he’d expected. Given a chance to gamble with money that wasn’t even her own, with no personal risk, shouldn’t she have jumped at the chance to make more? She’d certainly accepted his personal check quickly enough the other day at the office and he’d noticed it had been cashed promptly.

  Something didn’t sit right and it irked him that he couldn’t put his finger on it. But as he slowly roused Lainey to take from her once more what she so generously gave him, he promised himself he would get to the bottom of things, one way or another.

  Eleven

  She’d only been back from Melbourne a month, yet it felt like forever. Over the past four weeks Adam had grown increasingly distant. A different man from the lover who’d been insatiable during their two nights in Melbourne. They’d indulged in a very late breakfast on Sunday morning then visited the National Gallery of Victoria before returning to the hotel and enjoying its signature Tiffin afternoon tea.

  They’d returned to their suite, ostensibly to finish packing and prepare for the trip back to the airport and their evening flight but had ended up back in bed together, the high thread count white cotton bed linen all but scorching in the face of their heated lovemaking. In the end, packing had been little more than shoving articles in suitcases and they’d scrambled for the lobby where their limousine waited.

  During the flight home Adam had turned to business papers and had arranged for a separate car to take her home once they’d cleared the arrival hall.

  She’d returned home feeling as if she’d been discarded like a well-worn pair of shoes. Relegated to a dark corner until absolutely necessary again.

  In the workplace, Adam had been strictly professional. Not a single reference had been made to their intimacies, nor her unbridled declaration made in the throes of passion on their last night in Melbourne.

  She’d almost begun to wonder if she’d imagined their whole experience together until Adam had asked her the following Friday if she was interested in a little overtime. Hard on the heels of a reminder from one of Lee Ling’s staff that her grandfather’s weekly interest payment on his loan was overdue, she’d accepted Adam’s offer without negotiation, barely registering the look on his face as he’d written her another check.

  That weekend time they spent together had become a habit, with her leaving the office with Adam on a Friday afternoon and returning to have her evening meal with her grandfather every Sunday.

  During her time at Adam’s it was as if they were two completely different people compared to the pair who worked together in the office. There had been no clients, no paperwork—just Adam and endless hours of being together.

  Now, as per their usual Sunday afternoon routine, Adam had dropped her back home and, as she inserted her key in the front door, for the first time she hoped against hope that her grandfather wasn’t home. She couldn’t bear to be the object of his censure again, especially when it had been his behavior, his choices, that had put her in this position in the first place. If only he’d been prepared to swallow his darn pride for five minutes and seek help for his addiction neither of them would be in the position they were now.

  But the sad truth was Hugh Delacorte had put his pride before his home and his own flesh and blood, and Lainey loved him too much to be as tough as she needed to be to make him face up to his problems. Last night, as she’d swum naked with Adam in his heated pool, at his home on the Broomfield’s Peninsula southeast of the city centre, she’d come to a decision. Being with Adam had become as necessary to her as breathing.

  She wanted to be with him, whenever and however he wanted her—but she could no longer accept his money for doing so. Sure, she knew many wealthy men kept mistresses—showered gifts, clothing, cars, even accommodation upon them. What she was doing was technically no different, except deep down—where it mattered most—it felt totally, utterly wrong. Accepting his money each Friday tore her apart inside.

  This weekend with Adam had felt different—she’d felt different—and their time together had shown her it was time to face up to Hugh and tell him he had to ask for help. Her own happiness, her chance at hoping to make something of her time with Adam, hinged on it. If she continued to accept money from the man she loved, just to be with him, how could she ever expect anything more from him? More importantly, how could she ever convince him that she was there for him, and only him?

  She swung open the front door and listened for her grandfather’s hello. Nothing but silence greeted her as she dropped her things in her room and went through to the living room. The steady rain outside negated the need to check for him in the garden, so it looked as if he was out.

  Her stomach clenched as she wondered if he’d kept his promise to stay away from the casino. They were in rehearsals for the new series and she knew how important that was to him. She could only hope it would be enough to keep him away from trouble.

  Lainey started to get a light dinner ready for the both of them. It wasn’t until she had finished preparing a salad to go with the crumbed fish fillets she’d grabbed from the freezer that she noticed the answering machine light was flashing.

  Just the one message, indicated by the number on the display, but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to depress the button to listen to it. Instead, she set the small kitchen table for two, flipped the fish fingers in the oven where they were slowly baking, and mixed her grandfather’s favorite dressing.

  And still the light flashed its persistent red eye at her.

  With a frustrated sigh she put the small jug of dressing on the table and hit the play button. Her skin crept over her bones as Lee Ling’s voice filled the room.

  “This is a message for Miss Delacorte. In the light of your failure to fulfill your agreed duties with me during the evenings and due to your grandfather’s continued incapacity to meet his interest repayments on his loan, which can be seen to be defaulting on our agreement, I have come to the only conclusion possible. If you cannot settle the debt owed to me in full by the end of the month I will be forced to recover my money by the sale of your grandfather’s property.”

  The click of the phone as he hung up, followed by the disconnected beep before the message cut off, echoed in the room. Why on earth had her grandfather not used the money advanced to him under his new contract to pay Lee as he’d said he would? There was only one conclusion left to her. He must have gambled it away.

  Lainey sank into a chair and dropped her face into her hands. She knew she should have followed up on him. He’d shown a scant regard for his responsibilities toward repaying the money Lee had loaned him, why should she think he’d have changed now? She thought of the four checks she still had in her purse from Adam. Checks she didn’t want to accept. Checks that symbolized the gulf between what she wanted and what she could now, obviously, never have.

  It wasn
’t until she heard the timer go off on the oven that she forced herself to move. There was only one thing she could do if she was going to save their home. She had to appeal to Ling for more time—and then somehow she would have to find the necessary funds to meet those interest payments, starting with the money from Adam.

  Money she’d planned to return to him tomorrow at work.

  As she heard her grandfather’s car come into the drive she got up and erased the message on the machine. After dinner she’d be taking a trip to the casino to meet with Ling, and things would be resolved. If she could convince Ling to reconsider his threat of selling the roof out from over their heads, then they’d have some breathing space.

  Lainey smoothed the long scarlet sheath she’d worn the last time she’d worked for Ling over her hips before sauntering up behind the man and placing her hand on his shoulder. He flicked a glance at her and she saw the smug spark of recognition in his eyes.

  He drew her hand from his shoulder and nestled it in the crook of his arm, patting it absently as he concluded his conversation with a group of men from China in fluent Mandarin. Not understanding their language was no impediment to understanding the laughter they shared as Ling drew her away from them. It was clear what they thought she was there for.

  Lainey forced herself to relax and smile. Difficult to do when every nerve in her body screamed at her that she was making a dreadful mistake—that she should have told her grandfather of Ling’s call, and demanded to know what he’d done with the money he’d said he’d pay to the man. But it was too late now. She was committed.

  “It is good to see you again, my dear.” Ling smiled at her, his gaze traveling over her body and coming to rest on her breasts.

  Lainey’s skin crawled as if he’d touched her, and she fought to suppress a shudder of revulsion. Keeping the expression of distaste from her face was even more difficult as she reached into her silver clutch bag and withdrew the checks Adam had given her. Her stomach dipped as she reached into Ling’s breast pocket and pulled out his gold pen.