by Piper Knox
“That’s because I don’t want you to disappear on me before we do what we came to do.” His talent to douse whatever fire he was able spark within me was legendary, “but I can’t deny how good you look. Every man except for your relatives wants to eat you alive.”
I glanced at him, surprised. He wasn’t lying. His eyes were heavy lidded with passion. That spark lit up again and raged even more this time.
“Let’s congratulate your father first before we disappear into his study.” He was easy to spot. There was a group of men in the middle of the room surrounding him, most of whom were his friends from the yacht club. We made our way there. He was saying something animatedly to the group. His face was bright. His hands waved about energetically as he gesticulated. He looked like ten years had been subtracted from him.
“My father isn’t usually this excited about getting old,” I said.
“Probably that’s because he’s about to get out of the financial rut he created for himself,” Caiden replied.
“What? How did you know about that?”
“I have my ways.” His face was blank and gave a little away. If that was the case, then it made sense why Caiden wanted the document. It would be a nail in his coffin. No wonder Bryce was jovial when I met him. Dad soon noticed us and gestured at us, “My lovely daughter and her new husband, gentlemen,” he said to the small crowd. He opened his arms, and I went in for the hug. He let go of me and shook Caiden’s hand.
His gaze went to me. “Marriage suits you.”
“Happy birthday,” I said as he motioned for the other men to leave us.
“There’s nothing happy about getting old at my age.” His attention darted from me to Caiden, “I hear you’ve been doing some heavy sacking.”
Caiden’s grip around my waist tightened, “Par for the course for a newly acquired company.”
“Mmm…” he mauled, clearly wanting to say more, but then thought better of it, “it’s yours now. You can do whatever you want with it.”
“The laid-off workers would get a better package under us than had Celeste stayed with Lyndell.”
It was a low blow. Tension filled the air between us as Dad glared at him. Gone was the jovial mood he had before. He gave a tight smile, then changed the subject. “I hope you’re taking care of your husband, Hailey. I don’t want to hear stories about you in the paper or that you’re trending or whatever.”
My face reddened as I looked around to see if no one had heard him. “You don’t have to worry about me, daddy. The papers are busy with your stories.”
“You nasty little bitch.” He stepped forward, looking like he was about to slap me right there in the middle of the ballroom. Caiden pressed me closer to him as a reflex. “You should be happy that I’ve given you some standing in society after your antics.”
“I never said I was.”
“If your mother was alive to hear this. To see you like this.” He sized me up in disgust, “It should have been you instead of her.”
“Julian!” Caiden looked surprised by the sparring. “Don’t you ever talk to my wife like that.”
“She’s my daughter, I can say whatever I want.”
“Not in front of me.”
He scoffed and left us. Caiden watched him leave and finally turned his attention to me. “Are you okay?” He brushed my cheek in a manner I couldn’t help but interpret as touching and I tried to hold the inevitable tears back. “What’s wrong with him?” he said.
“He does that all the time when he knows he can’t do anything to the person he’s speaking to.”
Caiden shook his head. “What do you mean?”
I sniffed a few tears that were threatening to roll down, “I’m his personal punching bag. He never hits me physically, of course. But loves being emotionally abusive towards me when he feels out of control.” I looked down at my feet, realizing something for the first time in years, “It’s the only time he ever gives me attention.”
“Fuck him.” I felt Caiden’s hands rub down my arms, soothing me. His pity made me feel even sadder. I didn’t want to appear pathetic in his eyes. I gazed back up at him, “Let’s go to the study,” I whispered, “Better to get on it now than later.”
“Look at you, Catwoman.”
I rolled my eyes at him, “Don’t raise your hopes.”
We slithered away and out of the drawing room, making sure we didn’t attract the attention of anyone. The hall leading to the study was dark and empty. The door was closed, but it wasn’t locked. I sighed in relief when it clicked open into a chilly and dark room. I turned on the light. It looked exactly like it had always had. Cluttered and overly masculine. The trout sculptures hanging over the wall, made me feel like I was being watched, and everywhere I looked was either a portrait of a boat or a model of a boat. I had avoided the room whenever possible, and I didn’t want to be here now.
“Can you keep a lookout?” I said to Caiden, who still hadn’t let go of my hand. He nodded and went to stand by the door.
The safe was accessed by pressing a button underneath the desk. It opened the faux bookshelf and revealed the safe. My hands were shaking when I tried the first combination. My birthday. A bleep and it flashed red. It was the wrong combination. I wasn’t expecting it, but a girl gotta at least try. The next was Bryce’s birthday. That failed. I tried Greyson’s birthday. Failed again. Mom’s failed too. Now I was panicking. “Is anyone coming?”
“The coast is clear,” Caiden stood calmly by the door with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t look like someone on a lookout. I guess that would be the way to do it if you didn’t want to raise suspicion. I went back to trying another combination. His birthday. Failed again. Now I was panicking. I tried redoing the birthdays backwards, starting by year.
“Someone’s coming.”
“Fuck,” my hands were shaking even more. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”
“No,” he rushed over to me, “close the safe.”
I did it as fast as my shaky fingers could and turned in time to see Caiden stalking towards me and within a few seconds; he was in front of me. He took hold of my chin and bent down to kiss me.
17
His tongue coaxed my mouth open. Refusing him never entered my mind. I inhaled his scent as his tongue delved deeper, stroking and teasing mine, and I felt my knees buckle with the bone melting kiss. I leaned into his chest. The champagne he had drunk earlier was sweet on his tongue and made the kiss headier. His hands caressed my neck and began a journey down my back….
Someone behind us cleared their throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were here. I was looking for Dad.”
Caiden broke off, but he kept his eyes on me and his arms around me. We faced the person who had come in. It was Greyson. Behind him was someone else I had never seen before. It was a petite woman who was giggling. “I didn’t think I would find you in here, Sis. I saw the study light open and was wondering if it was dad.”
Caiden pulled me to his side. “I’m sorry I got a little carried away and dragged your sister into the first room I could find.” My heart was beating fast. I felt so breathless I could hardly speak.
“No worries. I’ll leave you to it then.”
He left. I let out a deep breath. My body was shaking with adrenaline. Caiden let go of me and went back to the door. He peaked through it, he glanced at me, “He’s gone.” I rushed over to the bookshelf and opened it again and made my way through the set of combinations. I tried Dad’s birthday with the date reversed. It clicked, flashed green. “It’s open!”. Caiden closed the door and strode back to me. I went through the safe. There were a bunch of documents in it, some money, a gold bar, a case filled with uncut diamonds, and right at the back a big manila envelope that was browning with age. I took it out. My hands were shaking as I opened it. Inside was an old document with the title written in blackletter font and the rest typewritten. It was the deed to the emerald mine in favor of the Celeste jewelry company. Just as Caiden said.
I ha
nded it to him. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
He took it. His hands were shakier than mine. His eyes scanned the document as he gripped the paper with more strength than was necessary, as if he was afraid it would disappear. “Yes,” he whispered, “thank you.” His voice was heavy with emotion. I had thought that this was only feuding between partners, but seeing Caiden’s reaction, I was no longer sure. He looked like he was holding something precious.
“So what’s so important about it?”
He took a deep breath, grabbed the envelope I was holding and put it back in. When his gaze was back to me, the emotion was no longer there. “It’s what Shep wanted. What he truly wanted.”
“I’m glad you could finally get it for him.”
“Don’t underestimate your contribution, you did most of the work.”
He was right. I had betrayed my family and thrown in my lot with my now husband. It was odd that I felt nothing close to remorse or regret. It felt right. Feeling too self-conscious under his stare, I looked at the time on my phone. It was still early, “Should we go back? I’m not sure how we’re going to return to a ballroom with a deed in hand.”
“No. Let’s go home,” he took my hand, “I don’t want to spend more time in this place that’s longer than necessary.”
“Great. I didn’t want to be here, anyway.”
18
I kept glancing at Hailey on the drive back home. She was a ball of surprises. One minute she was a vindictive mean girl, the next she was helping me steal from her father. I hadn’t let go of her hand the entire time from the moment we got out of the study to now. Letting her go felt like letting go of the connection we had built. Even when Bailey’s eyes had popped at us holding hands when we came to the car, I hadn’t let her go. The exhilaration of what we had done was too much to be ruined by going back to our original state.
However, there was one thing that was still bothering me. “Why didn’t you want to stay?” My question took her by surprise. She tried to remove my hand from mine, but I held it firm. I kept my gaze on her as I tried to look for answers. The little light streaming into the dark interior of the car made it even harder to parse her face.
“I don’t like old people parties.”
She was lying. “That’s not it. You don’t like your father. ”
“Good job, Einstein.”
“You won’t believe me, but I’m not daddy’s precious little daughter in the way you think I am.”
“I can see that now.” The way Julian had treated her was so out of the story I had built myself about the Lyndell family.
“My father,” she stumbled over her words, “my father doesn’t value me as much. He has his sons whom he loves a lot and to him, I’m an expensive asset that bleeds money.” Her voice had a cheery note to it that rang hollow as she began listing things off her finger. “He doesn’t like my lifestyle and makes a point of showing his disdain. He didn’t like that I chose sociology as a major in college and not business or law even. What else? He doesn’t like that my mother, the love of his life, died saving me. The only good thing I have done so far is marrying you.” She barely made it to the last sentence before her voice cracked.
I remember the story of her mother. She had drowned when their boat had capsized in the ocean. She was with Hailey and she had saved Hailey instead of herself. Hailey was still in high school back then, we both were. Julian, a usually stoic person, had broken down when he heard his wife had died. It was, coincidentally, the same time Hailey’s reputation of being a party girl kicked off. I can’t believe how dumb I had been not to have connected the two. She had been a grieving daughter who was also desperate for attention from a father who hated her. Why she still kept with her family, I had no idea. I rubbed her hand softly to console her. I heard her sniff and saw her other hand wipe her tears.
“He’s dumb to not see what he’s losing.”
“Is it that much? You yourself seem to not think so as well.” I had no valid response to that. She was wrong. There was a lot I was beginning to like about her. Most of it was physical, but I had recently learned that even though she was or is a party girl, she was not the irresponsible person who I thought her to be. She was actually hardworking, and for a good cause too. But I had to reconcile that good person with the same person whose careless actions had resulted in my brother dying. As much as I was beginning to like her, her father being mean to her did not erase her deeds.
She yanked her hand away from me. The rest of the ride was in silence. When we got to the apartment, Hailey was in a rush to get as far away from me as possible.
“Hailey,” I called her as she was about to get into her bedroom. She turned toward me. I was downstairs, and I looked up at her as I removed my tie and jacket. She looked like a golden goddess. “Thank you.”
“You already thanked me before.”
“I know. I wanted to do it properly this time. Have a drink with me.” She seemed to contemplate for a few seconds, then made her way downstairs. I don’t know why it felt as if I had been hanging on her decision.
I went to the bar, and poured a glass of whiskey. “Mojito?”
She nodded as she sat down on the bar stool.
“How did you know?”
“That’s the only drink I’ve seen you drink.”
“How observant of you,” she took the glass I handed to her, “Thank you.”
We both sat down opposite each other. I hadn’t been able to take my eyes away from her the entire night, and I still could not now. She seems to notice me glaring at her as a blush spread across her face. “You look beautiful.”
“I can’t say I don’t try.”
I suppressed laughter and took a sip of my drink. The fiery liquid rekindled another fire that had been simmering all night. “We need to talk about something.”
Her eyebrows went up from beneath her glass. “We do?”
“The kiss.”
“What kiss?” She took a sip of her drink, her gaze cast to the floor.
“Don’t play dumb with me. I know you felt what I felt when we kissed.”
“I don’t know about that. It was pretty tame. Nothing to write home about.”
I pulled her stool closer to mine so that her knees went straight between my legs and they rubbed my crotch, “Should we test it again? To see if it’s really nothing?”
“No. I’m good thanks.” She took another sip.
I leaned back. She looked a little mellowed. She was no longer wallowing over the lack of love from her father. In this evening glow, she looked more like a fragile flower in need of protection. It was easy to fall for her charms; I noticed. One moment I hated her, the next I wanted to play the court jester so I could take her sorrow away. How did she do it?
“What now?” her brows furrowed.
“I think you’re throwing away a wonderful opportunity to evaluate what’s between us.”
She rolled her eyes. Everything about her was sexy. Even this simple act of watching her drinking was somehow like watching a model on a beer commercial. She placed the drink down, “there’s nothing to evaluate.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I leaned in. Her knees brushed against my groin again and I groaned. She gasped. I placed my drink next to hers and took her hand. She didn’t relent. “I was wondering...”
“I don’t care to hear more.”
“If we made a mistake leaving what we did in France in France…”
She gulped. I could feel her pulse rising as I held her wrist. She was as affected as I was. “Why are we killing ourselves when we could easily satisfy each other?”
Her voice was now barely a whisper, “because…”
I pulled her in even closer and I muffled a gasp as she brushed my groin again. I was developing a raging erection, and I was sure she had noticed by now. “Because what?” I asked her. She had no response. I closed the small space between us and put my lips to hers. She was just as sweet as last time. Only this tim
e she wasn’t as surprised. I brushed my tongue against her lips, coaxing her to open her mouth. When she did, I delved in and held her tightly to me. The kiss was intoxicating. She was intoxicating. I was so lost in it, when I felt her hand brushing my hardness, I jolted in surprise. The thin material of the briefs and my pants felt like a thick between her hand and my cock. I wanted to feel her hand on me.
My hands were all over her back and neck in frantic motions that betrayed my earlier cool composure. I got up, lifted her from her seat and placed her on the bar counter.
She looked at me with a gaze heavy with passion. She was beautiful. My touch roamed over her legs, pushing up the dress in the process, exposing her thighs, and went up and up, revealing her body like a naughty Christmas present. Her silky panties were wet when I brushed her there. She moaned, I did it again and tasted her lips again. She squirmed and glided against my hand. The compulsion to feel my cock stroking inside her was overwhelming. I pulled her underwear down to her legs. They dropped to the ground over her shoes, which had fallen a while ago.