by Jenna Payne
“And, if they are professionals, they’re practiced at this,” I say. “If we try to confront them, they’ll just deny the whole thing.”
Gus stops pacing and turns to look at me. His lips aren’t pursed anymore and he’s staring at me like he’s seeing me for the first time.
“Emma,” he says. “Are you sure you told me everything you heard last night? Word for word?”
“As much as I remember, yes,” I say slowly wondering what he’s got planned.
“If that’s true,” he says, “then Ramona’s nervous about you but, Jake isn’t. He says he’s got you eating out of the palm of his hand.”
“Yeah,” I answer quietly. “The arrogant prick.”
“Maybe,” Gus says, “but, arrogant pricks tend to be very sloppy and pretty stupid.”
“What are you saying?” I ask.
“I’m saying you’re going to confront Jake about what you heard last night,” Gus answers.
I remember the sound of Jake’s voice, what he said when he thought I was asleep. I don’t want to face him again.
“That won’t work,” I say hurriedly. “He’ll deny everything.”
“Trust me, he won’t,” Gus says. “I’ve dealt with guys like that before. They think they can tell women whatever they want and get away with it.”
“Why can’t you talk to Ramona?” I ask.
“Because,” Gus says moving to his chair and flopping down into it, “she really will deny everything and I’ll probably believe her. You’ve seen us together. You know she’d tell me to go jump off a cliff and I’d do it.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I mutter, a smile coming to my face.
“I know you weren’t,” Gus says with the beginnings of a smile himself. “That doesn’t mean you weren’t thinking it.”
My smile grows as I look at him and I can tell I don’t need to answer. For one moment, it’s as though we’re not talking about a plan to murder Gus at all. For a moment, it’s like nothing’s changed and we’re just about to go into a particularly difficult business meeting.
“Ok,” I say, “I’ll do it.”
*****
We’ve got a plan. The signal for me to ask Jake if we can talk in private is Gus leaving his office “for a lunch meeting.”
This means that I’m forced to sit at my desk with Jake all morning making plans for place settings at the wedding reception, and pretending like nothing’s wrong.
“You ran off on me this morning,” he says when he’s sure no one can hear us. “I was planning on making us breakfast.”
“The marketing guys asked me to come in early to look at the campaign for the new software,” I lie. “Sorry, I should’ve at least said goodbye.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he says with that charming smile. The look that used to make me blush while my stomach did backflips now makes me cringe.
Luckily, he doesn’t say anything more about our one night stand. We continue talking about ice sculptures and seating arrangements while my palms begin to sweat and my heart races with anxiety.
Finally, at eleven thirty, Gus leaves his office. This is it.
I turn to Jake and ask if I can see him in private. I nod to Gus’s empty office and he smirks at me before standing from his chair and following.
Once inside, I see he’s still brandishing that suggestive smirk.
“Sneaking into the boss’s office for a ‘private conversation’?” he asks raising an eyebrow. “Apparently I’ve been a bad influence on you.”
I feel something like spiders begin to crawl up my spine at his insinuation. I shake them off as best I can and turn to him with a full frown.
“So, I heard you had a visitor last night,” I tell him, my arms crossed over my chest.
“Well, I should hope you’d know about that,” he says looking at me with a smirk. “You were there, after all.”
“I mean another visitor,” I answer. “She came in when you thought I was asleep.”
Jake looks at me confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard everything, Jake,” I answer him, “I know about Ramona, I know about your plan, I know about all of it.”
His shoulders slump and his face goes pale for a moment. But, one second later, he shakes it off and looks at me with a neutral expression.
“Have you told anyone else?” Jake asks.
“No,” I lie. “I wanted to wait for you. I thought you might have some...I don’t know...explanation or something.”
“You think there might be a reasonable explanation for what you heard?” he asks now moving towards me menacingly.
“I don’t know,” I answer as boldly as I can. “That’s why I’m asking you.”
He pauses nods for a moment and looks away. Finally, he looks back at me and heaves a sigh.
“The problem is, I can’t come up with anything either,” he says, “Nothing you’d believe anyway. Ramona was right. You’re too smart for that.”
“So...it’s true?” I ask. “All of it?”
“Yes,” he says nonchalantly. “We’ve been planning this for several months. Ever since your stepbrother showed up in Canada. When he dies, Ramona gets everything. That’s how it always works.”
I stare at him for a long while, taking this in. I knew, of course, coming in here, that what I’d heard was true. But, I didn’t expect Jake to come straight out and tell me that. And I certainly didn’t expect him to be so casual about it.
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask. “You know I won’t let you get away with it.”
“I’m telling you this,” Jake says, stalking towards me, “because I know you won’t say anything to anyone else.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, squaring my shoulders and giving him a glare that usually makes men shrink away in fear. He simply smirks at me and moves closer.
“Because,” Jake says, “I know things about you, Emma. Things you probably wouldn’t want anyone else knowing.”
I blush when I remember what I revealed last night under the influence of red wine. I’d told him all about me and Gus and our history.
“And, if you try to tell Gus about what happened, Ramona and I will just say that you’re jealous. You’ve always been in love with him and you’ll do anything and everything to stop his wedding,” he says.
“And what if I go to the police instead?” I ask. He chuckles.
“With what evidence?” he asks. “And even if you do acquire some, we’d stop you before you even made the call.”
“How would you do that?” I ask.
“Well, Emma, unrequited love is a very powerful thing. It makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do. A lot of people have killed themselves for less. So, when they find you with a rope around your neck and a suicide note, I’m guessing no one’ll think twice about it.”
He moves towards me and I step back, finally I’m pressed against the wall of the office.
“So, you see, Emma? I’ve got the upper hand,” he says. He grabs my neck and kisses me fiercely. I stand rigid and motionless.
He pulls back still smirking.
“See you after lunch,” he says. “We still need to go over the color scheme for the reception.”
With a chuckle, he leaves me standing in the office with a look of terror and shock on my face.
When the door closes, I replace the feigned look with a smile of my own.
Slowly, I saunter over to the computer on Gus’s desk, turn the microphone back to its original position, further away from where Jake and I were standing and press the stop recording button on the desktop.
*****
It takes two days for the police to come back with information on Ramona and Jake. It turns out their real names are Gene and Robert, and have links to the mysterious deaths of four other men under various aliases.
I make sure I’m there when they’re both taken into custody. The memory of Ramona screaming and crying to Gus that it’s all a huge
mistake as well as the memory of Jake looking at me in shock as he’s handcuffed and taken away is one I’ll relish forever.
The best part is, Gus asks me to go out for celebratory drinks with him that night.
“I still can’t believe I was that stupid,” Gus says. We’re sitting in a booth at our favorite bar just a block from Gus’s apartment.
Deciding I’ve had my fill of red wine, I’m sipping on a light beer as Gus drinks his traditional Guinness.
“It wasn’t just you,” I tell him honestly, “I’m the one who decided to go home with some guy I’d only known for two weeks. That’s why Jake...Robert...whoever he was thought he could blackmail me.”
“Honestly, I’m glad you went home with him,” Gus says. I put down my beer and my eyes widen in shock.
“I mean, I’m not glad you...you went home with him...like that,” he amends quickly. That adorable blush is coming into his cheeks and I can’t help but smile, “I’m just glad you heard what they were planning. If you hadn’t, I’d have been dead in two weeks.”
“I’m glad I heard it too,” I say with a smile, “I like you alive.”
“That makes two of us,” he says with a smile of his own.
We sit at the bar for another hour. We don’t talk about what’s just happened. Instead, we talk about the new Star Wars that’s just about to come out, (Gus thinks it’s going to be amazing, I’m nervous about it); about the new gossip around the office, and about what music is trending.
In short, we talk about everything and nothing. When both of us are feeling fairly inebriated, we finally decide to close out the tab. I offer to split the bill, just like we always do when we go out for drinks together, even though he is so rich. But this time, he insists on paying.
“You saved my life,” he tells me when he hands his card to the bartender. “I think that’s worth a few drinks.”
I can’t help but smile as a pleasant tingling sensation begins in my stomach. The reason we always split the bill is that Gus didn’t want his outings with me to feel too much like dates. He said it would be too weird.
Now, clearly, something’s changed.
The tingling sensation continues when he invites me to stay at his apartment so I can sleep the drinks off.
We walk in silence the two blocks to his building. Tension seems to be growing with every step we take.
When we reach his apartment and step inside, I almost don’t trust myself to act normally around him.
I try as best I can when he offers me a glass of water and we both sit on the couch.
I see him sipping out of his water glass out of the corner of my eye and I can’t help but imagine crawling into his lap, kissing him and continuing right from where we left off in his office three days ago.
“You know it is a shame,” he says finally.
“What’s a shame?” I ask trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.
“You did all that work for the wedding,” he answers. “The church is booked, so is the reception venue. The flowers, the invitations. We’re going to have to cancel the cake, the silverware, the catering. Everything.”
“It’s okay,” I answer. “Like I said, I’d rather you be here and alive than pull off a perfect wedding.”
“I know,” Gus says. “But, I’ve been thinking about it the past couple of days and I thought...well...if you want...we could still have a wedding.”
“What do you mean?” I ask my heart beginning to hammer in my chest as I pray he’s talking about what I think he’s talking about.
“I mean,” Gus says, “I love you, Emma.”
My heart stops beating and my breath catches in my throat.
“I...I think I have for a long time,” he says. “I just tried to ignore it because I thought it would be too weird. I think that’s why I proposed to Ramona in the first place. I thought if I was with someone else, I could get you out of my head. But, it didn’t work. Even before I found out about...you know...I still couldn’t stop thinking about you and—”
He never gets a chance to finish. In one move I reach over, wrap my arms around his neck and press his lips desperately to mine.
It’s not long before he kisses me back, pulling my body once again into his lap so that I’m flush against him.
He pulls back gently and whispers.
“Does this mean you’ll marry me?”
“Yes.”
He smirks and pulls me back against him.
He kisses me desperately, passionately. I can feel his member growing beneath his pants as his hand travels to my knee once again.
This time, he doesn’t stop.
His hand moves over my panties and I adjust my waist to help him slide them off me. Soon, I’m pressing against his fingers, writhing in pleasure, shaking and moaning against him.
He moves his hand out from beneath my skirt and I gasp in protest before he picks me up, like a bride on her way to the honeymoon suite.
“Aren’t we supposed to wait until after we’re married to go across the threshold?” I ask teasingly as he opens the door and moves me to the bed. He places me on it gently and, with the sexiest smirk I’ve ever seen from him says.
“Well, we’ve never exactly done things the proper way. Have we Emma?”
I smile and shake my head ‘no’.
It’s not long before we’re completely naked in front of each other. I stare at him as he traces my body lightly with his fingers before placing a kiss on each of my breasts in turn.
He kisses his way down my body as though he’s paying it homage. Under his hands, I don’t feel like I did with Jake. I don’t feel like an object to be had.
I feel like a goddess, I feel like something to be cherished, adored, and loved.
When he slides into me, I cry out in pleasure and keep my eyes locked on him. He looks at me with a desperate, hungry expression as he pushes into my body in an ancient rhythm. He wants me. I can feel his want. He thrusts hotly and heavily inside me.
I feel pressure building inside of me as I feel Gus above me, moving faster. Just before he loses control completely, he leans down and whispers into my ear.
“I love you so much.”
That one phrase sends me over the edge. Gus joins me and soon, we are lying together in a tangle of messy and exhausted limbs.
He moves aside and opens his arms to me. I move into them willingly. He presses a soft kiss on my hair and snuggles against me. I smile to myself.
In that moment, I remember what I told Gus that night in his office. If you can’t imagine life without a person, that’s when you know it’s right.
I can’t imagine my life without Gus.
And now, finally, I know that I won’t have to.
THE END
Bonus Story 8 of 40
The Dragon Prince
“A pie and some ale please…” ordered Arken, taking a seat at one of the stools at the inn’s bar. His stomach and his irritable horse had told him that it was time to stop. The Drunken Pony seemed like a sensible choice.
“What news do you bring?” asked the worried-looking innkeeper, placing a tankard of beer in front of Arken.
“I bring no news…” replied Arken without expression, taking an eager slurp from the tankard. “I’m just here for some food.”
“These are troubled times,” sighed the innkeeper dramatically, bustling around to plate up one of the pies that had been warming beside the fire. “I rely on travelers like you to keep me up to date with the affairs of the world.”
“I’m afraid I have no interest in the affairs of the world,” shrugged Arken, focusing his attention on the pie and ale in front of him.
“There are rumors of a coup,” continued the innkeeper, seemingly happy to carry on the conversation without any support from Arken. “Although, I don’t know what to believe any more. There are so many conflicting stories. But I had heard that there was always trouble between the King and his brother Silas.”
Arken remained silent.
&
nbsp; “What brings you to Garnet Valley?” asked the innkeeper.
“I’m just passing through,” shrugged Arken blankly.
“You’re carrying a sword…and you’re certainly not dressed like a laborer or a trader…” observed the innkeeper. “If you asked me I’d guess that you were some kind of mercenary…”
“No one is asking you,” growled Arken darkly.
There was the sound of horses, the noise of a party arriving at the rear of the inn. Giving up on his inquisition of Arken, the innkeeper went out to see what was going on. Arken resolved to finish his meal quickly and get back on the road.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” whispered the innkeeper conspiratorially, as he returning cautiously to the bar, “but there’s someone here that I think you should meet.”
“I can’t imagine that anyone would have much interest in meeting me,” growled Arken, tired of the innkeeper’s chatter. “Who is it?”
“Shhh…” cautioned the innkeeper. “You must be discreet; these are dangerous times.” The innkeeper gave a less than subtle signal to someone who was evidently watching from the door behind him.
A man appeared beside the innkeeper. He said, “What’s your name, mercenary?”
“Who wants to know?” replied Arken insolently, fed up with the intrigue that had disturbed his lunch.
“I am Davidon–a loyal servant of King Ludus, ruler of Garnet Valley,” announced the man importantly. “I have an important mission that will be well-rewarded, but I need to know that you can be trusted.”
“I have no interest in the affairs of the Vacheron family,” replied Arken.
“I will pay you well. It’s a simple job. You will walk away a rich man.” said Davidon.
“What exactly are you asking me to do?” asked Arken.
“A simple delivery…” explained Davidon. “I will pay you half now and half when the package reaches its destination safely. I will pay in gold.”
“If it was all so simple you wouldn’t be paying so handsomely for it to be done,” snarled Arken. “What’s the package and where does it need to go?”
“To Castle Drakon, ten days’ ride from here,” explained Davidon.